
WOOD ROW WILSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WOODROW WILSON 



HIS LIFE AND WORK 



A complete story of the life of 
Woodrow Wilson, Teacher, 
Historian, Philosopher, and 
Statesman, including his great 
speeches, letters and messages 
— also a complete account of 
the World Peace Conference. 



/ $ 6 •;• 



By 
WILLIAM DUNSEATH EATON 

WIDELY KNOWN WAR WRITER, SPECIAL WAR CORRESPOND- 
ENT, AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF CANADA IN THE WAR ; 
FORMER EDITOR OF CHICAGO HERALD 



and 



HARRY C. READ 

AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR IN FIVE VOL- 
UMES, AND WAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE 
CHICAGO JOURNAL 



Profusely Illustrated 



1919 






Copyright, 1919, by 
C. E. THOMAS 



JUN 30 ISI9 



53 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface 21 



CHAPTER I 

HIS BIRTH AND EAELY LIFE 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson is born in Staunton, Va — 
He is the son of a clergyman— His ancestry— His life 
as a boy— His playmates— His school days— Oft to 
college— He first goes to Davidson College— Later to 
Princeton— Becomes a student of law and politics— 
His interest in international events ^ 



CHAPTER II 

THE LAWYER AND PROFESSOR 

He enters the practice of law— Rennick & Wilson— 
The failure of the venture— Woodrow Wilson be- 
comes an author— He meets Ellen Louise Axson— 
His courtship— He returns to college— Is ottered a 
professorship on publication of his book— He accepts 
the offer of Bryn Mawr College— His marriage to 
Miss Axson— Is made a professor at Wesleyan Uni- 
versity— The return to Princeton University— Presi- 
dent of his Alma Mater— He institutes many needed 
reforms 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER III 
GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY 

PAGE 

The political situation in New Jersey— Reform is 
sweeping the country — Woodrow Wilson is chosen by 
the Democratic boss as a candidate — A mistake by the 
boss — Doctor Wilson opposes Boss Smith for Senator 
— He is nominated as candidate for Governor — The 
election — The fight on Smith — The new governor 
breaks up the machines — The rage of the politicians 
— New Jersey is given the best primary law in the 
country — The presidency looms up 46 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE 

The Democratic Convention of 1912 — The wildest in 
the history of the party — Governor Wilson nomi- 
nated after days of deliberation — The entire party 
united behind him — President Taft and Colonel 
Roosevelt his opponents — His speech of acceptance . . 60 



CHAPTER V 

WOODROW WILSON ELECTED PRESIDENT 

The spectacular campaign — The Democratic land- 
slide — Wilson elected President — His inauguration — 
The celebration in Washington — The inaugural ad- 
dress 71 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER VI 
A FEARLESS PRESIDENT 

PAGE 

The new President wastes no time — He chooses his 
cabinet — He reverts to an ancient precedent and ad- 
dresses congress in person — Revision of the tariff — 
The Underwood Bill — President Wilson seeks the 
desires of the people — The Federal Reserve Banks — 
The President publishes a new book 83 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MEXICAN QUESTION 

Revolution in Mexico becomes anarchy — Huerta 
seizes the government — President Wilson sends John 
Lind, former governor of Minnesota, to Mexico City 
— His instructions — The insolent reply to his ques- 
tions—He returns to the United States— President 
Wilson addresses congress on the problem — Outlines 
his plan 99 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE 

President Wilson delivers his first message in person 
—He tells of the state of the Union— A description of 
the situation in Mexico — Promises an attack on "Big 
Business " H* 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER IX 
THE DESTRUCTION OF MONOPOLY 

PAGE 

President Wilson attacks monopolies in congress — 
He declares that they must be removed — Asks for 
anti-trust legislation — His demand resulted in the 
Clayton Anti-trust bill and the Federal Trade Com- 
mission act — The Panama Canal dispute — The Presi- 
dent asks for repeal of the tolls clause — Congress re- 
peals the offensive portion of the law — The death of 
the President's wife — The funeral 126 

CHAPTER X 

THE WORLD WAR 

President Wilson distressed by the conflict — He calls 
the attention of the belligerents to the Declaration of 
London — The replies are cordial — The President pre- 
pares to insist on American rights — The famous Neu- 
trality Proclamation — American revenue demoral- 
ized by the war — President Wilson addresses con- 
gress and asks for additional revenue 143 

CHAPTER XI 

AMERICA'S RIGHTS 

The United States enters a new phase — President 
Wilson realizes the new trade possibilities — His ad- 
dress to the United States Chamber of Commerce — 
German threats against neutral shipping — President 
Wilson's protest — Great Britain's use of the Ameri- 
can flag — The President insists on America's rights 
— Lays down principles to govern all belligerents — 
His stern reply to Great Britain 173 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XII 
THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 

PAGE 

The fiendish plot — How it was hatched — German 
agents active in America — The sinister advertise- 
ment — Prominent Americans aboard — The false 
message — The ship attacked by submarines — Ameri- 
cans lose their lives — The world aghast — Rejoicing in 
Germany — President Wilson sends the first note — 
The reply unsatisfactory — William Jennings Bryan 
resigns from the cabinet — The President refuses to 
allow passage of resolutions warning Americans to 
' ' stay at home ' ' — The nation backs the President . . . 190 

CHAPTER XIII 

GERMANY CALLED TO ACCOUNT 

President Wilson's second note on the Lusitania — 
German reply unsatisfactory — President Wilson 
sends sharp note — Tells Germany repetition will be 
considered as "deliberately unfriendly" — Germany 
recedes from position — The President's second 
romance — His engagement is announced — His mar- 
riage and honeymoon 208 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER 

Great Britain's methods denounced by the President 
— He argues the question on a basis of international 
l aw — Quotes many authorities in a note addressed to 
the Mistress of the Seas — His claim recognized — The 
President emerges victorious from the controversy. . 223 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XV 
THE THIRD MESSAGE 

PAGE 

The President asks congress to increase the armed 
forces of the United States — He dwells at length on 
the Mexican question — His opinion of the Philippines 
— Demands a strong navy 237 



CHAPTER XVI 

PRESIDENT WILSON ON PREPAREDNESS 

" America First" — The President declares his 
thorough Americanism — "If any man wants a scrap 
... I am his man" — Urges the Associated Press to 
avoid false rumors — His address at the Manhattan 
Club in New York — The Preparedness Campaign — 
His speech in Pittsburgh — Villa attacks Columbus, 
N. M. — American troops sent in pursuit — Carranza 
aroused — The fight at Carrizal — The National Guard 
mobilized — Carranza backs down 264 



CHAPTER XVII 

SUBMARINE WARFARE RESUMED 

The sinking of the Sussex — President Wilson threat- 
ens to break relations with Germany — The act dis- 
avowed — He informs congress of his action — The 
controversy closed — A diplomatic victory for the 
President 290 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XVIII 
THE EIGHT-HOUR LAW 

PAGE 

President Wilson urges the adoption of the Eight- 
Hour Railroad Law — He champions the cause of the 
workingmen — Is opposed by the employers — Defeats 
their designs — The laAv is passed 305 



CHAPTER XIX 

PRESIDENT WILSON RENOMINATED 

The issues at stake in 1916 — The Democratic plat- 
form — President Wilson insists that Americanism be 
made an issue — He is opposed by Charles Evans 
Hughes — Nominated by acclamation — His speech of 
acceptance — Says he will uphold American rights on 
the sea 318 



CHAPTER XX 

PRESIDENT WILSON RE-ELECTED 

The campaign — One of the most bitter in history — 
Many issues at stake — The voters bewildered — Many 
say nothing — President Wilson speaks at Abraham 
Lincoln's birthplace — He also addresses the Woman 
Suffrage Convention — Promises new reforms in busi- 
ness legislation — Attacks Wall Street — The election 
— President Wilson victorious 342 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XXI 
THE FOURTH MESSAGE 

PAGE 

President Wilson urges many vital changes in the 
Preparedness programme — Advocates the passage 
of a Corrupt Practices Act — Congratulates congress 
on the work performed 363 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE PRESIDENT'S PEACE PROPOSAL 

The President suggests peace negotiations to the 
warring powers — Germany accepts the offer with 
conditions — The Allies refuse — President Wilson 
states his views in congress — They are widely dis- 
cussed — He emphasizes self-determination of peoples 
He vetoes the Literacy Bill 375 



CHAPTER XXIII 

RELATIONS WITH GERMANY SEVERED 

The Germans announce unrestricted submarine war- 
fare — The President hands Von Bernstorff his pass- 
ports — He goes before congress and declares diplo- 
matic relations with Germany have been severed — 
Accuses the German Government of faithlessness — 
He next demands permission to arm merchant ships 
— They are armed — His inaugural address 394 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XXIV 
THE UNITED STATES AT WAR 

PAGE 

The President asks congress to accept the German 
defi — Asks for Selective Service legislation — War is 
declared — "Make the World Safe for Democracy" — 
No quarrel with the German people — The pledge of 
life and fortune — The President's proclamation — 
Billions for defense 410 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

President Wilson issues a message to the people — 
Pleads for unity of purpose — The nation united — The 
Selective Draft — The whole nation goes to war — 
Food control — President Wilson sends a message to 
the Russian people — He denounces disloyalty and 
warns the country against German agents 430 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE VOICE OF THE ALLIES 

Pope Benedict asks for war aims of the belligerents-— 
The Allies look to President Wilson to announce their 
views — The fifth annual message — The President 
asks for war on Austria — Congress declares war 444 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XXVII 
THE FOURTEEN POINTS 

PAGE 

President Wilson states* the war aims of the Allies — 
He enunciates his famous "Fourteen Points" — The 
reply of Von Hertling — His address repeated by 
Czernin — President Wilson again attacks the Ger- 
man war aims 464 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE CHALLENGE OF FORCE 

President Wilson accepts the Challenge of Force- 
He declares that the war must be brought to a vic- 
torious finish — Demands the views of the German 
people 484 



CHAPTER XXIX 

NO PEACE BY COMPROMISE 

The President rejects the overtures of the Central 
Empires for a debate — Announces that terms have 
been stated — Refuses to consider other terms — De- 
nounces the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest 
—Speaks for the Allies 495 






WOODROW WILSON 



CHAPTER XXX 
THE ENEMY WHINES FOR PEACE 

PAGE 

The German Empire and the Kaiser ask for peace — 
Attempt to ignore the " Fourteen Points" — The 
President asks if the chancellor represents the Ger- 
man people or the Imperial government — The Ger- 
mans dodge the issue — President Wilson demands 
unconditional surrender — He refers the Germans to 
Marshal Foch — The Austrians surrender — The Ger- 
mans appeal to Foch for an armistice 508 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE ARMISTICE 

The President reads the terms of armistice to con- 
gress — Germany is militarily defeated — The de- 
mands of the Allies — Germans ordered to retreat to 
east of the Rhine — Forced to surrender munitions of 
war — The war comes to an end 525 



CHAPTER XXXII 

THE VICTORY MESSAGE 

President Wilson's Sixth Presidential Message — 
Tells the story of the victory — The American army- 
How the entire country won the war — Reduction in 
expenditures — Declares his intention to attend the 
peace conference — Gives many reasons — Prepares 
for departure 537 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 

PAGE 

The President the dominating figure of the confer- 
ence — The most notable gathering of statesmen in 
history — The League of Nations Committee — The 
Committee of the Big Four — The League of Nations 
Covenant — President Wilson's first draft 557 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE DEMANDS OF THE VICTORS 

I The price of peace — The United Staffed a,sks nothing 

— The British demands — France^Italy^-Belgium — 

— r"> Japan — The Balkan states — A l^ga^r-price — Many 

I questions of international importance — Herbert 

yHoover, world food administrator, feeds Germany. . 577 



CHAPTER XXXV 

LLOYD GEORGE DEFENDS PRESIDENT WILSON 

Lloyd George returns to England — He addresses par- 
liament — Answers his critics — Arraigns Northcliffe 
for attacks on the President — Tells of the difficulties 
at the peace conference — Discusses the Russian situa- 
tion — Tells why allied troops are fighting in Russia . . 591 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XXXVI 
THE ITALIAN EMBROGLIO 



PAGE 



Italy demands Fiume — President Wilson opposes 
Premier Orlando — The demand is based on the 
Treaty of London — President Wilson declares he is 
not a party to the London agreement — The clause of 
the treaty in question — Orlando threatens to quit — 
The Germans accept an invitation to attend the con- 
ference — Japanese diplomacy — Italy deserts the con- 
ference 614 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

The revised covenant of the League of Nations — Pro- 
vision made for withdrawal of nations — Geneva 
named as the seat of the league— Provision for reduc- 
tion of armaments— Monroe Doctrine is made an in- 
tegral part— The mandatory clause — The Bureau of 
Labor — The nations participating 640 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

PRESIDENT WILSON SPEAKS 

He enters a motion for the adoption of the covenant- 
Explains the changes — The President nominates Sir 
James Eric Drummond for secretary general — His 
motion is passed — The covenant accepted by the 
nations 660 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XXXIX 
THE GERMAN EMISSARIES 

PAGE 

The German delegates arrive in Versailles — The Ger- 
mans in the occupied territory attempt to celebrate — 
The y are stopped by American military police — 
"Tando returns to Rome and explains Italy's stand — 
President Wilson issues a statement on the Italian 
question — Declares his friendship for Italy 675 



CHAPTER XL 

JAPANESE AIMS ATTAINED 

The Chinese aims defeated — Japan obtains posses- 
sion of the Shantung peninsula — President Wilson 
betrayed by Great Britain and France — Diplomatic 
notes exposing Japanese deceit — The Germans pre- 
sent their credentials — Helplessness of the German 
nation 684 



CHAPTER XLI 

THE GERMANS RECEIVE THE PEACE TREATY 

Premier Clemenceau hands the document to the Ger- 
mans — His address — The reply of Count von Brock- 
dorff-Rantzau 699 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XLII 
THE PEACE TEEATY 

PAGE 

Official summary of the treaty— The League of 
Nations is made part of the treaty— German territory 
ceded to France — Poland recognized 706 



CHAPTER XLIII 

THE PEACE TEEATY (Continued) 

Eeparations provided— Germany forced to pay dam- 
ages for lives of submarine victims — The indemnity 
—The Ehine bridges go to France— The Kiel canal 
opened to the world — Germany to be occupied by the 
allied army for fifteen years 729 



CHAPTER XLIV 

GEEMANY CEUSHED 

The German people stunned by the peace terms— A 
week of mourning ordered by the Berlin government 
—Total indemnity is estimated at $450,000,000,000 
— The reaction leads to an indignant outburst — 
Maximilian Harden tells Germany to sign or accept 
worse conditions later— The first protest from the 
German delegation on the peace treaty— President 
Wilson directs the reply— The President decides to 
remain in Paris — Brockdorff-Eantzau proceeds to 
Berlin and announces on his return that he will sign. 748 



WOODROW WILSON 

CHAPTER XLV 
THE PEESIDENT CALLS CONGRESS 

PAGE 

Congress meets in special session — The President's 
message — The question of labor — Foreign trade field 
— Revision of taxes — Tariff problems — Protection 
of the dye industry — Safeguards for the United 
States — The President's recommendation of woman 
suffrage — The telephone and railroad problem — He 
urges the repeal of the prohibition law — He continues 
his work with the peace conference — The Germans 
seek to evade responsibility — They are pinned down 
to the facts — Brockdorff-Rantzau asks for more time 
— His request is granted 756 



TO CRITICS OF PRESIDENT WILSON 

Ye safe and formal men, who with unf evered 
hands weigh in nice scales the motives of the 
great, how can ye know what ye have never 
tried? 

And so the Nile is fretted by the reeds 

it roots not up. — "Richelieu." 



PREFACE 

While President Wilson became the leading figure in 
world affairs when this country entered the war, and exer- 
cised influence amounting to positive authority in ex- 
tremely difficult international readjustments throughout 
the interval between the armistice and the signing of 
peace, he has yet to be understood for what he is and what 
he has done. For that reason this history of his career is 
timely and necessary. 

It presents him as an individual and a statesman 
actuated by one unswerving purpose — a determination to 
promote and perfect a genuine government by the people, 
a government democratic in the pure, inclusive meaning 
of that word. 

Any American familiar with the operation of party 
politics behind the open acts of our government knows 
that up to the time Mr. Wilson became Governor of New 
Jersey the whole system was directed by "machines" — a 
euphemism for barter and spoils. That state was an ex- 
treme example of spoliative political organization. To 
his masterful leadership as Governor, New Jersey owes 
its liberation from political cattle herding ; and the nation 
the now cardinal primary law, under which political initia- 
tive rests with the voters themselves under provisions 
that make corruption at the source of things an impossi- 
bility. 

If he had done no more than this he would have earned 
a place high up among the great ; but it was only the first 



WOODROW WILSON 

of a long line of acts by which the nation has been brought 
forward from the musty conditions of fifty preceding 
years into clear air and healthful public life. He is a sani- 
tarian of governments, a figure distinct among the 
apostles of real liberty. His patriotism is passionate ; but 
his reasoning is clear, though cold — and very broad, very 
alert and comprehensive, as all the nations know. 

The pages here following show him in impartial light. 
Not all of his countrymen agree with him in all things. 
No man of high ideals so steadily upheld can escape criti- 
cism, but no man is less disturbed thereby. He has taken 
the torch of truth from the hands of the Fathers, and 
holds, and will pass it on, more luminant than it was — even 
as Lincoln did, and Washington before him. This history 
of his life and acts should reinspire everyone whose fortu- 
nate lot it is to be an American citizen ; for it shows them 
one of themselves, as plain, as unaffected as any, stand- 
ing to the world as one of the foremost men that ever lived 
in the tides of time. 



WOODROW WILSON 



CHAPTER I 
HIS BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE. 

Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth president of the 
United States, was born December 28th, 1856, in Staun- 
ton, Va. 

He was the son of Reverend Joseph Ruggles Wilson, 
an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church, and 
Janet Woodrow Wilson, to whom Reverend Wilson had 
been married on June 7th, 1849. Mrs. Wilson was born 
in Carlisle, England. 

The Wilson family had been one of pioneers and 
their early history dated back to the time when James 
Wilson, an Irish emigrant boy, landed at the port of New 
York, shortly before the end of the eighteenth century, 
seeking a place in the new world. 

James Wilson proceeded to Philadelphia, where he 
entered the employ of William Duane, a newspaper pub- 
lisher. There it was he learned to set type by the old 
hand method and there he met Anne Adams, a young 
Irish girl who had come over on the same ship with him. 
They were married and remained in Philadelphia until 
after the war of 1812, when they moved to Pittsburgh, 
which was then on the frontiers. The next journey was to 
Ohio, where James Wilson located in the town of Steuben- 
ville and began to publish a newspaper called the West- 
ern Herald. 

The venture was successful and the pioneer journal- 

23 



24 WOODROW WILSON 

ist taught the entire business to his seven sons, who be- 
came expert at the trade. The paper grew and waxed 
prosperous, so that James Wilson came to be addressed 
as Judge Wilson by his friends, while his enemies feared 
his sharp and caustic comments published in the columns 
of the Western Herald. 

Among these political enemies was Samuel Medary, 
who, according to Judge Wilson, was too prominent in 
the public limelight. On one occasion, while speaking 
from a public platform, Medary 's friends chanced to 
boast of the fact that he was born in Ohio. The follow- 
ing day this notice was published in the Western Herald : 

' ' Sammedary 's friends claim for him the merit of 
having been born in Ohio. So was my dog Towser." 

It seemed paradoxical some years later when Medary 
was governor of Ohio that Henry Wilson, a son of the 
publisher, should woo and win the governor's daughter. 
It is the youngest son of Judge Wilson in whom history 
is deeply interested. He was born in Steubenville, Ohio, 
on February 28th, 1822, and learned the publishing busi- 
ness from the ground up like his brothers. To him 
was given, however, the mark of student and his father 
encouraged him in his thirst for knowledge. He attended 
the academy in Steubenville and later went to Jefferson 
College, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class 
in 1844. After a few years as instructer at Mercer 
Academy, he entered the Western Theological Seminary 
in Allegheny, Pa., finishing his course with two years 
more at the Steubenville Academy and a year at Princeton 
University. It was at Steubenville, the city of his birth, 
that he met Janet Woodrow. They were married two 
weeks after his ordination and settled in Staunton, Va., 
when he received a call to the pastorate of the church 
there. 

Woodrow Wilson was baptised Thomas Woodrow 
and was known as Tommy for many years. In 1858, when 
he was two years old, his parents moved to Augusta, Ga., 



WOODROW WILSON 25 

when Eeverend Wilson was called to the pastorate of a 
larger church. It was the First Presbyterian church of 
Augusta and still stands. The superintendent of the Sun- 
day School was James W. Bones, who later married 
Marion Wilson, a sister of Reverend Wilson. 

The family was firmly installed in Augusta when 
rumors of the Civil War came sweeping down from the 
north. Of those days the president now has little recol- 
lection. He recalls but two incidents : the first when he 
heard a man shouting, ' i Lincoln is elected and now we will 
have war," and the second when he saw a detachment 
of men recruited for the Confederate Army as they passed 
through Augusta. 

Little Tommy Wilson was a leader of his playmates. 
He was an interested spectator when the first horse car 
rolled through the streets of Augusta and soon cultivated 
friendships with the drivers, who used to take him aboard 
for two or three round trips. It was the lore of these 
drivers that inspired in him the love of horses and brought 
him to the point where he could ride like an Indian. One 
of his riding companions was Pleasant Stovall, in later 
years editor of the Savannah Press. The inhabitants of 
Augusta would turn and smile at the barefooted boys 
riding through town on the big black buggy horse of 
Reverend Wilson. 

It was this friendship between Tommy Wilson and 
Pleasant Stovall that brought about the formation of the 
"Lightfoot Club," an organization formed for playing 
baseball with other boys in Augusta. In the winter 
months, activities were turned to debates and studies of 
parliamentary proceedings. This was the first manifesta- 
tion of the love for politics that was to mark Tommy Wil- 
son 's later life. 

One of Tommy's favorite play spots was at the home 
of James Bones, some distance out of town in what was 
then known as the ' ' Sand Hills. ' ' Jessie Woodrow Bones, 
his daughter, was an inveterate tomboy and liked nothing 



26 WOODROW WILSON 

better than to see the old black horse approaching with 
Tommy Wilson and Pleasant Stovall on his back. To her 
it meant a delightful day playing the beautiful maiden cap- 
tured by the Indians and rescued by the dashing disciples 
of Leather Stocking. Other games in which the three 
took interest were ambuscades of the little darkies who 
would pass through a nearby ravine on their way to the 
stores. A bloodcurdling warwhoop would ring out and the 
victims would flee in terror followed by the toy arrows 
of the "savages." At other times, little Jessie would 
have to play the part of the tortured trapper and submit 
to being burned at the stake. 

Tommy Wilson made friends right and left. He be- 
came a favorite with the Federal soldiers who occupied 
the arsenal near the Bones' residence soon after the war 
and was not dissuaded from continuing the acquaintance 
by being told that they belonged to the hated and feared 
Yankee army which had threatened the existence of the 
south. Tommy and Jessie seriously considered convert- 
ing the Yankees into Presbyterians on the assumption 
that there was little difference between Yankee and 
heathen. 

Reverend Wilson was most careful of his son's edu- 
cation. Rather than send him to the primitive schools in 
Augusta he was kept home until he was nine years old. 
That did not necessarily mean that the youngster was 
without instruction, as his father schooled him in the rudi- 
ments of learning and taught him the love of literature 
which distinguished his later days as president of one 
of the leading American universities. 

When his father was reasonably sure that schooling 
would not affect the free and healthy development of his 
son's mind he was sent to the school of Professor Joseph 
T. Derry, who maintained a private institution in Augusta. 

The school was held in an old building, which also 
housed the town livery stable for a time, but Professor 
Derry soon sought more commodious quarters in a cotton 



WOODROW WILSON 27 

warehouse. While Tommy and his friends were at liberty 
from the class room they played hide and seek among the 
bales of cotton. 

For the greater part Tommy still relied on his father 
for his education. Trained as he had been in the news- 
paper business, Reverend Wilson was a master of Eng- 
lish, and it was to him that the future President owed his 
literary ability. In this manner Tommy Wilson passed 
the rest of his school days and found himself prepared for 
college far sooner than the average youth of the times. 
In 1870 Reverend Wilson was called to assume the pastor- 
ate of the largest church in the capital of South Carolina. 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson left the family home in 
Columbia, S. C, at the age of seventeen to enter his first 
college course. Reverend Wilson had been debating the 
question in his mind for some time and Davidson College, 
in Mecklenburg County, S. C, was chosen as the insti- 
tution for Tommy. 

It was in the fall of 1873, shortly after the conclusion 
of the Franco-Prussian war, and the mind of the young 
student was attracted to international politics by the 
career of Bismarck, who then was standing out as the 
guiding spirit of German destinies. 

Davidson College was a staunch Presbyterian school. 
It had carried out the stern doctrines of the church for 
many years and at that time was known throughout the 
south. The living was rather primitive, as the times had 
not been prosperous owing to the reaction necessarily 
following the civil war. The town itself was only a small 
village having but one general store which catered to the 
tastes of the students. It was here that Tommy Wilson 
and his boon companions purchased the crackers and 
cheese for their nightly feasts. 

It might be mentioned at this point that several of 
his classmates later achieved distinction in life. Among 
them was R. B. Glenn, who afterward became governor 
of North Carolina. 



28 WOODROW WILSON 

Tommy's days of study were interspersed with ath- 
letic hours to which he gave a desultory interest. On 
one occasion the captain of the baseball team, irritated at 
Tommy's apparent lack of interest, stated that "he would 
be a good player if he wasn't so damn lazy." His fa- 
vorite form of recreation was walking. He seldom took 
companions on these jaunts and explained his action by 
saying that he used the time to think. 

Soon after his arrival in Davidson he earned a nick- 
name that followed him through the year. It seems that 
the class in rhetoric was discussing the manner in which 
the Normans changed Saxon words to suit their conven- , 
ience and the professor turned suddenly to Tommy 
Wilson. 

"What is calves' meat when it is served at table?" 
he asked. 

1 1 Mutton, ' ' was the prompt reply. 

He was "Monsieur Mouton" to his classmates from 
that time on. 

Just before the time came for examinations, Tommy 
Wilson fell sick and was forced to return to the paternal 
mansion in Wilmington, N. C, where his father had ac- 
cepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian church. The 
young student remained there through the winter of 1874 
and 1875 and it was then determined that he should return 
to Princeton University to resume his studies. He hailed 
the announcement with delight and began preparing for 
the entrance examinations. So it was that in Septem- 
ber, 1875, Tommy Wilson boarded a train for the historic 
university. 

There he soon became the popular leader of his class, 
among whom were Eobert Bridges, later one of the edi- 
tors of Scribner's Magazine; Mahlon Pitney, afterward 
a Judge in the United States Supreme Court; Edward 
W. Sheldon, president of the United States Trust Com- 
pany in after years; and Reverend A. S. Halsey, secre- 
tary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. 



WOODKOW WILSON 29 

Tommy Wilson was able to assume leadership in a 
group of men like these because of his early training in 
literature, received at his father's knee in the days that 
followed the civil war. He passed most of his spare mo- 
ments in the university library, where he could satisfy in 
part the insatiable demand of his mind for knowledge. 

It was on one of these literary quests that he hap- 
pened across a stray file of the Gentleman's Magazine in 
which a serial was running under the caption of "Men 
and Manner in Parliament." It was then his life am- 
bition was fixed and he proceeded to apply his mind to 
the study of politics. He had many examples from which 
to seek inspiration and application. Disraeli, the British 
intellectual giant; Gladstone, and John Bright were his 
favorites. The incident of Disraeli's first day in parlia- 
ment always remained in his mind. He liked to read over 
and over the words of the famous statesman to the mem- 
bers of the house who laughed at his first oratorical at- 
tempt: "You laugh at me now but the day is coming 
when you will listen." He followed the career of Dis- 
raeli up to the time when that statesman dictated the pol- 
icies of Continental Europe. 

The influence of this independent course of study led 
Tommy Wilson to drop his first name and announce to 
his friends that he would be known as Woodrow Wilson 
from that time on. The change was accepted and today 
the average man, woman and child in the United States 
could not tell offhand what the president's other name is. 

Woodrow now entered upon the second phase of his 
career. He formed a resolution to fit himself for public 
life and the course of study he had mapped out for him- 
self outside of the classroom showed his determination to 
succeed. He was receiving a cut and dried education in the 
classroom, but it must be said that his independent course 
had a far greater influence on his after life. He was not 
a particularly bright student in the classroom. He threw 
away two opportunities to win prizes when he learned 



30 WOODROW WILSON 

that he would have to study Ben Jonson and two plays of 
Shakespeare to compete for the English Literary Prize, 
and that he would have to defend "Protection" in a de- 
bate on "Free Trade versus Protection" to enter the lists 
for the Lynde Debate. He was a staunch advocate of 
free trade from the time he entered Princeton. 

As the years of his life at college went past, Woodrow 
Wilson continued to manifest the same interest in gov- 
ernment. He published a criticism of the cabinet form 
of government in the International Review in August, 
1879, which attracted considerable attention. In this 
article he advocated free and open debate in the sessions 
of congress and decried hidden conference. 

On his graduation from Princeton he proceeded to 
the Law School of the University of Virginia and contin- 
ued his study of politics and law. All his attention once 
given to his favorite subjects, he rapidly forged to the 
head of his class and became one of the most popular 
students in the university. He was initiated into the Phi 
Kappa Psi fraternity on October 25th, 1879. 

One of his favorite forms of recreation while at the 
University of Virginia was singing in the university glee 
club and in the chapel choir. The choir was under the 
direction of Duncan Emmett, later one of the most prom- 
inent practising physicians in New York City. The glee 
club made many excursions through the nearby country 
singing and playing. Woodrow Wilson always was a 
member of the party. He had a fine tenor voice and was 
in great demand for impromptu quartettes in the dormi- 
tories at night. 

He also organized a debating society while at the law 
school. His love of politics was so marked by this time 
that he inevitably chose the ideals of one of the world's 
leading statesmen when it was his turn to choose a subject. 

In 1880, just before the Christmas holidays, Wilson 
was forced to leave school because of ill health. He re- 
mained at home the following year, reading and studying. 



CHAPTER II 
THE LAWYER AND PROFESSOR. 

On a pleasant day in May, 1882, pedestrians in Mar- 
ietta street, in Atlanta, Ga., were startled to observe a 
sign swinging from the second floor of the building at 
No. 48. It was a wooden sign on which was inscribed the 
modest legend 

RENICK & WILSON 

Inquiry on the part of these same pedestrians might 
have brought out that Renick and Wilson indicated a law 
firm composed of Edward Ireland Renick and Woodrow 
Wilson, two youthful followers of Blackstone. But there 
was no inquiry. The population of Atlanta appeared to 
have the utmost confidence in the lawyers who had been 
established for some time and the venture failed. 

Woodrow Wilson had come to Atlanta to enter public 
life through the practice of law. He met Renick, who like 
himself was a stranger in the city, at the boarding house 
of Mrs. Boylston. The two formed the law partnership 
with Renick 's name appearing first, for he was the older. 

Eighteen months of struggling convinced Lawyer 
Wilson that his was a hopeless task unless he could make 
enough money to sustain life while he was seeking dis- 
tinction in the courts of Atlanta. While waiting for the 
law business to develop he had been engaged in writing 
his first important book — Congressional Government — 
in which he took keen enjoyment and still pursued his 
old favorite study of politics. 

For the first time in his life, Romance now began to 
play a part. It will be recalled how he played Indian with 
little Janet Woodrow Bones. His sojourn in Atlanta gave 

31 



32 WOODROW WILSON 

Jiim the opportunity to renew the acquaintance as the 
Bones family was living in Rome, Ga., a short distance 
from Atlanta. It was on a visit to the Bones' home that 
he met Miss Ellen Louise Axson. It was not their first 
meeting, to be accurate, as he was introduced to her when 
she was a baby in long dresses and he a boy of seven. 

There was an apparent loss of interest in law and 
politics during the ensuing weeks as Miss Axson came 
more and more into the thoughts of the young student. 
He formed his determination to persist until he had won 
the lady's promise to be his, and a scant eleven meetings 
took place before the all important question was asked 
and Miss Axson said "Yes." 

All thoughts of practicing law in Atlanta were 
abandoned at once by the young lawyer. He immediately 
returned north and entered upon a two year course at 
Johns Hopkins University, where he specialized in history 
and political economy. He also attended lectures given 
by Professor Richard T. Ely, famous economist, who 
had returned from Europe a short time before. While 
abroad Professor Ely had studied French and German 
socialism and it was this subject that claimed Woodrow 
Wilson's deep interest. 

Johns Hopkins University never had been an institu- 
tion for any but serious minded students and the usual 
frivolities of college life were missing. The spare mo- 
ments were passed in research of the most serious kind 
and Wilson found that he could pass uninterrupted hours 
in the library which, for that day, was very complete. 

At Johns Hopkins, Wilson had the advantage of the 
best associations. Among the members of his class were 
Albert Shaw, E. R. L. Gould, John Franklin Jameson, 
the historian ; Arthur Yaeger, later president of George- 
town College, Kentucky, and many others who became dis- 
tinguished as leading citizens. 

Noting the lack of recreational facilities at Johns Hop- 
kins, Wilson led a movement to found a glee club similar 




PRESIDENT WILSON. 

PRESIDING GENIUS WHO GUIDED THE DESTINIES OF THE 
ENTIRE WORLD. 




m 



WOODROW WILSON 37 

to the one at the University of Virginia. He succeeded 
in his efforts and, with the co-operation of Professor 
Charles S. Morris, instructor in Latin and Greek, the club 
came into existence. Professor Morris consented to act 
as president of the organization and invited the club mem- 
bers to meet at his residence one night a month. A con- 
cert to which admission was charged was held in the as- 
sembly hall and was voted a great success. 

Wilson was now working for his degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy and continued his writing during spare 
moments. The treasured manuscript on " Congressional 
Government" had been brought from Atlanta and the 
student continued to add to it as his latest ideas developed. 
At the same time he completed an article on Adam Smith 
entitled "An Old Master," which attracted universal at- 
tention and gained fame for the author. It was seized 
upon by students of politics as a basis for new theories 
and later was published in several magazines. 

The book was not finished until the first months of 
1885, when it was given to the world. Its full title was, 
' ' Congressional Government ; A Study of Government by 
Committee, by Woodrow Wilson." It was read by poli- 
ticians in Washington and in the little country towns 
where politics revolved around the cracker barrel in the 
general store. For the first time the government of the 
United States was described as something existing in 
the concrete. The popular idea had relied too much on 
the constitution and the legal code. The people were 
shown how the government worked, not the manner in 
which it was supposed to operate. 

Educational authorities were not slow in appreciating 
the worth of the book. Its publication was followed by 
many offers from universities and colleges throughout 
the country offering the young author chairs as professor 
of history and political economy. After some slight hesi- 
tation, due to the many offers, Wilson chose that of Bryn 
Mawr, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The book was sub- 



38 WOODROW WILSON 

mitted to the authorities of Johns Hopkins University as 
a thesis for his degree of Ph. D. and he proceeded to Bryn 
Mawr to occupy the chair offered him. 

While Wilson had been studying and writing at Johns 
Hopkins University, Miss Axson was in New York pur- 
suing her course in art. Upon receipt of the notice of his 
success, she abandoned the course and proceeded to Bryn 
Mawr, where they were married on June 24th, 1885. 
There he leased the pretty little cottage which had been 
the parsonage of the Baptist church on the Gulf road and 
a new chapter of life began. 

Professor Wilson did not desert his studies when he 
embarked on his new career. If anything, he continued 
his researches to a greater extent than ever before because 
he was now engaged in the practice of his two main ideas 
— government and politics. He was constantly in his 
study and many were the phases of political government 
he presented to the somewhat bewildered minds of the 
young ladies who made up his classes. Beside his duties 
as professor of political economy he taught ancient his- 
tory and the history of the Eenaissance. 

The next seventeen years of Professor Wilson's life 
were passed as an instructor in various universities. 
First of these was Bryn Mawr, where he applied the 
principles of government and politics which he had elected 
to make his life work. The college was opened in 1885 
immediately before he accepted the chair of political 
economy and history. 

He worked hard to make his lectures interesting, and 
many of those he delivered were declared by other mem- 
bers of the faculty to-be gems of literary thought, apart 
from their value on the subjects he was teaching. His 
vacations were passed in the south, where practically all 
his friends lived and where he could visit again the scenes 
of his boyhood. His first and second daughters were born 
south of the Mason-Dixon line. 

A year after Professor Wilson accepted the offer of 



WOODROW WILSON 39 

the faculty of Bryn Mawr, lie was given his degree of 
Ph. D. by Johns Hopkins University, which had not hesi- 
tated to accept his book, "Congressional Government," 
as a thesis. He was pleased with the distinction and 
devoted himself more than ever to the study of govern- 
ment. Two years later he was given a lectureship at 
Johns Hopkins and journeyed to Baltimore every week. 

He remained at Bryn Mawr until 1888, when a call 
came from the faculty at Wesleyan University, Middle- 
town, Conn., to occupy the chair of history and political 
economy. The distinction was too great for the professor 
to ignore, and it was. with considerable mutual regret that 
he bade farewell to his many friends in the quaint Penn- 
sylvania town. Accompanied by his family he journeyed 
to Middletown, where he at once entered upon his new 
duties. 

His courses were popular with the faculty and student 
body from the first day. It was the first time New Eng- 
land educational circles had been treated to anything 
but the old established forms of education, and the pro- 
fessor's courses soon became the center of interest in 
the university. His fame spread through the neighbor- 
ing states and many were the invitations he received to 
lecture on various subjects. He had retained his lecture- 
ship in Johns Hopkins University and by special arrange- 
ment crowded twenty-five lectures into the brief space of 
a month when he was on a vacation from Wesleyan. 

Soon after his arrival in the New England town, 
Professor Wilson was made a member of the athletic 
committee and took a keen interest in the various sports 
allowed by the faculty. His addresses^ to the students 
on the proper athletic spirit to be observe^kwon their ad- 
miration. This was particularly true when\they found 
he had an intimate knowledge of college athletics that was 
far removed from the nature of the subjects in which he 
was instructing. 

"You must go into the game to win, not to keep the 



40 WOODROW WILSON 

score down," he would say to a team. "You never will 
meet with success until you make up your minds to fight 
your hardest and not be satisfied with merely making a 
good showing." 

His social obligations became pressing and Mrs. "Wil- 
son found that her home was the most popular in Middle- 
town. Thither flocked the most cultured people of the 
town and distinguished visitors were invariably turned 
over to Professor Wilson. It might be said that they de- 
parted with the feeling of having met a man who was 
making himself felt in the world. 

His second book was published while he was at Mid- 
dletown. It was entitled "The State," which was along 
the same line as its predecessor. It involved a vast ex- 
pense of time and labor and attracted wide attention. 

Professor Wilson now began to study active politics. 
He was keenly aware of the evils existing in government 
as it was. He knew the plan did not operate as it was 
supposed to and passed long hours trying to evolve some- 
thing different. He decried the existence of the pro- 
fessional politician and his influence in political circles. 

The whole educational world was interested in his 
theories, but he received no encouragement from the poli- 
ticians, who believed him a visionary and a dreamer. 

Wesleyan University could not long claim a man of 
such ability. In 1890 the call came for him to occupy the 
chair of law and politics at Princeton University, his 
Alma Mater, and it was of too great moment for him to 
ignore. So it happened that fifteen years after he began 
his college career, he returned to the old collegiate town as 
an instructor. 

His methods soon won him distinction, and the faculty 
was surprised and pleased to learn that class attendance 
records were broken by the many who took Professor 
Wilson's courses. 

Princeton University had been standing still for sev- 
eral years. This is no reflection on the president at that 






WOODROW WILSON 41 

time, Francis Landley Patton, who had done his best to 
advance the interests of the school. The trouble was with 
the fathers of the students. Most of them sent their sons 
to college to learn the same things they had learned, in 
the same old way and by the same old tedious methods. 

The task was too much for Doctor Patton, who was 
a brilliant scholar but without ability to recognize the 
signs of the times. A younger man was needed, and the 
choice fell on Professor Woodrow Wilson. It was 1902, 
practically in the dawn of the new century, and progress 
was rapid. 

It was the first real opportunity Doctor Wilson was 
offered to place in practice his ideas of government. He 
was not unopposed in his ideals, for the fathers of the 
students looked upon his innovations with a disapproval 
they made no attempt to conceal. 

Princeton had aristocratic leanings from the day it 
came into existence. It had been known asa" rich man 's 
school." It was famous as the most attractive university 
in the country. Its presidents had been chosen from 
among the most prominent divines in the history of the 
land and Doctor Wilson was the first layman to occupy the 
seat of president. 

He was not hasty or abrupt in his revision of the 
system. He had never been an advocate of radicalism 
and passed much time in studying conditions. Two phases 
of college life to come in for immediate attention, how- 
ever, were discipline and the scholarship requirements, 
which had become lax through the years. The first final 
examination saw many students dropped for failing to 
meet the necessary standards. There was an immediate 
protest over his action, but he countered the verbal attacks 
with the reply that no partiality would be shown a student 
because of his father's standing in the community. All 
were to be treated alike regardless of their social ' ' pull. ' ' 

His efforts met with results from that time on. No 
longer did the fashionable sons of rich parents proceed 



42 WOODROW WILSON 

to Princeton and cavort over the campus on a four year 
vacation after the strain of high school years. It took 
time, of course, for the new president to silence the ob- 
jections, but they died out with the passing of the idlers 
to other circles of activity, and the new students accepted 
the regulations as laid down by the president. 

The next move of Doctor Wilson was to appoint a 
committee of revision on the course of study. He also 
issued an announcement that he wanted the sons to be 
educated differently than the fathers. One can imagine 
the uproar this created, but he remained firm and declared 
further that the world had progressed since the fathers 
were boys and new ideals and thoughts were coming to 
the front. 

It was the first attempt to bring the students under 
one form of discipline that applied to all without fear or 
favor. It was the beginning of the ' ' department system ' ' 
that has made Princeton famous throughout the land and 
has turned out hundreds of students specialized in their 
professions instead of with a general but vague idea of 
the thousand unrelated subjects which formerly stood 
for " education.' ' 

Another departure from the established custom in- 
stituted by the new educator was the foundation of the 
preceptorial system. He declared that there were not 
sufficient safeguards placed over the students while they 
were away from the classroom. They were free to do 
as they pleased, and even though they desired direction 
and interest from the faculty, it was not forthcoming. 
Such conditions were intolerable, according to Doctor 
Wilson. He abolished formal recitations and brought 
the students into close touch with the instructors, who 
were young men for the greater part. Once the personal 
element was introduced, the efficiency of the institution 
increased. 

All these changes were not accomplished without the 
expenditure of money. The preceptorial system meant 



WOODROW WILSON 43 

an expense of $100,000 a year alone. Part of this was 
raised by subscriptions from the alumni and constituted 
the only evil of the system. The donors were given 
grounds for their arguments and assumed a certain 
amount of control over the policies of the university. The 
balance of the money was raised by subscriptions of the 
students themselves. 

Thus it was that a new Princeton University came 
into being. When Doctor Wilson took charge, students 
of education could see nothing but decay ahead of the old 
system. They were astonished at the progress made with- 
in a few years by the new leader. Princeton was now a 
progressive, constructive institution ranking with the best 
of the new universities in the middle west, which had 
threatened to leave it far behind in the struggle for 
knowledge. 

Five years after Doctor Wilson took charge he an- 
nounced that the university was to carry its influence into 
the homes of the students as the culmination of the pre- 
ceptorial plan. Again was the attention of the alumni 
invited to the perpetual fight the president was making 
in the name of progress. He felt the necessity of looking 
into the living conditions of students on the ground that 
a healthy, sanitary life for the body would lead to a sound 
mind. 

He accordingly ordered plans drawn for a number 
of dormitories over which the university authorities 
would have complete jurisdiction. These were for the 
housing of such students who wanted to live economically 
and in the college atmosphere. The younger professors 
offered to occupy such quarters in the dormitories as 
would be assigned to them by the president for the sake 
of the companionship which would bring them into close 
touch with the student body. 

It was a direct blow at the aristocratic element that 
persisted in the "club system" in a place where democ- 
racy should have reigned supreme. Only four hundred 



44 WOODROW WILSON 

students from the university could obtain membership in 
these clubs and the others were forced to remain outside 
because of the prohibitive prices of membership. It was 
certain that this engendered a bitter feeling on the part 
of the unfortunate outsiders. 

A circular descriptive of Doctor Wilson's plan was 
sent to the clubs just before Commencement, 1907, when 
they were crowded with the wealthy alumni who were 
members in their younger days. The roar of indignation 
that went up caused the timid board of trustees to veto 
the " dormitory plan," much to Doctor Wilson's disgust. 
An attack also was made on the preceptorial system, but 
in spite of the objections it continued in vogue. 

Doctor Wilson was charged by the insurgents with 
being a Socialist and a bigot. His reply was that the clubs 
stood in the way of higher education and must be removed 
if progress was to be made. He continued to address 
the alumni on all occasions and refused to make the fight 
a personal issue. He pleaded for the betterment of the 
university, but his opponents remained obdurate and the 
dormitory plan was finally abandoned. He remained 
steadfast on the preceptorial plan, however, and refused 
to consider its withdrawal. 

This altercation was no sooner settled than the ques- 
tion of a graduate college for Princeton University came 
up. It had been under discussion for some time, but the 
return of Professor West, who had been sent to Europe to 
study the graduate college system, resulted in an agita- 
tion for the addition. 

A bequest of $250,000 was left by the will of Mrs. J. 
A. Thompson to begin the work. A further gift of $500,- 
000 was offered by William C. Proctor, of Cincinnati, on 
condition the faculty raise a like amount and that Mr. 
Proctor be allowed to choose the site of the new building. 

Doctor Wilson felt that the plans presented by Pro- 
fessor West were too elaborate for the amount of money 
forthcoming. He also was opposed to allowing Mr. Proc- 



WOODROW WILSON 45 

tor to choose the site, feeling that the matter was one for 
the board of trustees to decide. He stated his views at a 
meeting of the trustees and they coincided with him. Mr. 
Proctor promptly withdrew his offer. 

This raised a storm of protest which Doctor Wilson 
ignored. He had the good of the university at heart and 
declined to allow the mistaken, though well-intentioned, 
criticism to move him from his position. 

Then Isaac C. Wyman died, leaving $3,000,000 for 
the sole purpose of building a graduate college at Prince- 
ton. The last remonstrances of Doctor Wilson were swept 
away in the jubilation that followed and the graduate col- 
lege became an assured fact. 



CHAPTEE III 
GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY. 

The nomination of Woodrow Wilson, Ph. D., LL. D., 
for governor of the populous state of New Jersey was a 
mistake. But it was a mistake that worked to the in- 
estimable advantage of people who were politician-ridden 
in the full sense of the word and cursed with the worst of 
American evils — a two-party machine. 

The man who made the error was James Smith, Jr., 
former United States senator from New Jersey, who had 
been so rewarded for his activity in delivering the vote 
of the New Jersey delegation to Grover Cleveland in 1892. 
The Democratic party was his personal property, free 
from taxation, and supposedly storm proof. His right 
hand man was James R. Nugent, an exponent of the old 
political theory that " might makes right." Of his other 
assistants little need be said except that they were at the 
bid and call of the directing head, James Smith, Jr. They 
were never allowed to forget that. 

In addition to the political machines, the corporation 
interests played a great part in the government of New 
Jersey. Among these was the Pensylvania Railroad Com- 
pany and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. The 
people of New Jersey had as little to say in the govern- 
ment of their home state as they had in that of California. 

The Republican organization was almost as mal- 
odorous as the Democratic. It was led by the notorious 
"Board of Guardians" composed of former Governors 
Franklin Murphy and Edward C. Stokes ; Senators John 
Dryden and John Kean ; and David P. Baird. These five 
were fairly representative of the Republican corporation 
interests. 

46 



WOODROW WILSON 47 

Smith did not limit his activities to the direction of 
the Democratic machine. Some of his close intimate 
friends were connected with the Republicans and it was 
openly charged, though never proved, that both party- 
machines were retroactive ; they worked for either party 
at the discretion of Smith or the " Board of Guardians." 

Reform was sweeping the country in 1910. It was 
felt in New Jersey to a great extent, but the politicians 
were ensconced behind their apparently impregnable 
walls and considered the question with serious minds. It 
was plain that they could be starved out in time. The 
solution was a decision to change tactics. 

Woodrow Wilson's popularity had been growing 
steadily throughout the state and Smith was quick to 
seize its importance. He never stopped to consider that 
the learned college president would be anything but wax 
in his supple fingers or that he could extract promises 
sufficient to bind the prospective favorite to him and his 
principles. That was where he made his mistake. 

All through the early summer of 1910, Smith spread 
the propaganda through the newspapers that supported 
his machine. It was easy for him to see that he had 
"picked a winner." He accordingly made overtures to 
Doctor Wilson. 

The college president was wary in committing him- 
self to a definite acceptance. He weighed the proposition 
carefully in an effort to ascertain the motives that 
prompted the unexpected support of the Democratic ma- 
chine. It was apparent to him that Smith would not lend 
his support without a return of substantial privilege in 
case the campaign was successful. 

When the delegation from the Smith headquarters 
called on him, he asked the questions. They were forced 
to answer. 

"Is Mr. Smith seeking the United States senator- 
ship f ' ' he asked bluntly. 

Absolutely not, the delegation replied. He would 



48 WOODROW WILSON 

never think of such a thing. He was interested in ' ' good 
government' ' and felt that Doctor Wilson would be the 
best governor New Jersey ever had. 

"I should have to oppose him if he ran for the nom- 
ination," said Doctor Wilson. "He represents to me 
everything that is repugnant in politics. He is the direct 
antithesis of my convictions. ' ' 

They redoubled their assurances and urged him to 
accept. He agreed on the condition that he was not to 
support any candidate at the dictation of the machine or 
make any secret promises in return for their support. 

Speaking of the matter afterward, Doctor Wilson 
said: 

"They asked my permission to nominate me and I 
could not understand why. It seemed to me a most 
astonishing thing that they should go outside the machine 
organization to choose a candidate and especially a man 
who made it clear that he was not to be bound to their 
programme in any way. It was very puzzling. I asked 
impertinent questions of some of the delegation. They 
would not give me a satisfactory explanation but acceded 
to my terms. I thought for a time they had abandoned 
the idea of spoils politics." 

Doctor Wilson was asked formally on July 12th, 1910, 
to accept the Democratic nomination for governor. The 
only question raised was whether he would stand by the 
leaders of the organization as such. Doctor Wilson re- 
plied that he was in favor of party politics so long as 
they were kept uncontaminated. 

Three days later he issued a statement declaring he 
would accept the nomination in case he could be convinced 
that a majority of the Democratic voters would signify 
their willingness. The result was a sensation. Voters 
throughout the state greeted the announcement with en- 
thusiasm. Although there was doubt expressed in cer- 
tain quarters that the professor candidate was being made 



WOODROW WILSON 49 

a tool by the Democratic machine, the feeling at large was 
that he would be the best champion the people could have. 

Doctor Wilson was not unopposed in his candidacy. 
Three other Democrats entered the contest. They were 
Frank S. Katzenbach, George S. Silzer and H. Otto Witt- 
pen. Wittpen was mayor of Jersey City and a personal 
enemy of Robert Davis, one of Smith's leading hench- 
men. All three were well represented at the convention 
which was called to order at Trenton on September 15th, 
1910. 

Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the first ballot. 

The speed with which the convention proceeded to 
business was so unexpected that it was necessary for 
Doctor Wilson to leave his study in Princeton and hasten 
to Trenton. Entering the hall, he mounted the platform 
and delivered a speech that fairly swept his late op- 
ponents and his supporters off their feet. It was a 
masterpiece of eloquence. He said : 

"I feel the responsibility of the occasion. Responsi- 
bility is proportionate to opportunity. It is a great op- 
portunity to serve the state and the nation. I did not 
seek this nomination, I have made no pledge and have 
given no promises. If elected I am left absolutely free 
to serve you with all singleness of purpose. It is a new 
era when these things can be said, and in connection with 
this I feel that the dominant idea of the moment is the 
responsibility of deserving. I will have to serve the state 
very well in order to deserve the honor of being at its 
head. * * • 

"Our platform is sound, satisfactory, and explicit. 
The explicitness of the pledges in it is a great test of 
its sincerity. By it we will win the confidence of the 
people. If we keep the confidence, we can keep it only 
by performance. 

"Above all the issues there are three which demand 
our particular attention: first, the business-like and 
economical administration of the business of the state; 



50 WOODROW WILSON 

second, equalization of taxes; and third, control of cor- 
porations. There are other important questions, like the 
matter of a corrupt-practices act, liability of employers, 
and conservation, but the three I have mentioned will 
dominate these. 

"We must have a public service commission, with the 
amplest powers to oversee and regulate public service 
corporations — not powers to advise but powers to con- 
trol. 

1 ' States are primarily the instruments of controlling 
the corporations and not the federal government. It is 
my strong hope that New Jersey will lead the way in re- 
form; moreover, the State can find out whether it has 
been creating corporations to elude the law. 

"Did you ever experience the elation of a great hope, 
that you desire to do right because it is right and with- 
out thought of doing it for your own interest? At that 
period your thoughts are unselfish. 

"This is particularly a day of unselfish purposes 
for Democracy. The country has been universally misled 
and the people have begun to believe that there is some- 
thing radically wrong. And now we should make this 
era of hope one of realization through the Democratic 
party. 

"The time when you can play politics and fool the 
American people has gone by. It is a case of put up or 
shut up. We must show the people that we are not look- 
ing for offices but for results. * * * 

"Maine is a word -that has stirred many feelings. 
They had a Democratic governor named Plaisted and 
waited until his son grew up to get another. In the mean- 
time they had been learning by experience the need of 
getting the second one. 

"We have come to a new era, just as when the found- 
ers of this government established a new era in the his- 
tory of the world when they founded this government. 
We have got to reconstruct a new economic society, and 



WOODROW WILSON 51 

in doing this we will have to govern political methods 
directly. In doing this we will be doing something as 
great as did our forefathers. 

"America has one special distinction. It is not that 
she has wealth and resources. Many a nation which had 
wealth rotted away before America was born. It is that 
America was born with an ideal — freedom for its people. " 

Woodrow Wilson was elected governor of New Jersey 
in the fall election of 1910 by a plurality of 49,000. His 
predecessor had been elected four years prior by a plu- 
rality of 7,000. It was a sweeping victory for the student 
of politics and government. On the same day, 73,000 
Democrats signified that their choice for United States 
senator would be James E. Martine. James Smith, Jr., 
was not on the ticket but announced his candidacy at 
once. 

The Governor-elect was swept into a controversy with 
the Democratic boss the day following the election. 

"The primary is a joke," said Smith. 

"It is far from being a joke with me," was the reply 
of Governor Wilson. "The way to prevent it from be- 
ing a joke is to take it seriously. The question as to who 
is going to represent the state of New Jersey in the 
United States senate is of little moment beside the ques- 
tion of whether the people of New Jersey are going to be 
allowed the legal right to pick their candidates by popular 
election. ' ' 

True to the promise made before he had accepted 
the nomination, Governor Wilson notified Smith that he 
would oppose his campaign for senator to the utmost of 
his power. He tried to induce Smith to withdraw with- 
out undergoing the humiliation of defeat, but the Demo- 
cratic leader was obdurate. 

"Will you confine your opposition to the mere an- 
nouncement that you do not favor my candidacy ?" asked 
Smith. 

1 ' That is not my method, ' ' replied the governor. ' ' I 



52 WOODROW WILSON 

will oppose you with every honorable means within my 
power. I mean what I say. 

"Unless I hear from you within two days that you 
have abandoned your ambition, I will announce my op- 
position." 

Smith departed and waited three days. He then 
asked Governor Wilson to grant him additional time, but, 
true to his word, the governor had issued a signed state- 
ment to the newspapers which appeared at once and 
called the attention of the people to what he termed the 
"absolute unfitness" of Smith as a United States senator. 

The fight was one of the most bitter in the history 
of New Jersey. The governor did not content himself 
with handing statements to newspaper men. He climbed 
into the political arena and addressed meetings of voters 
in every city in the state. The result was that thousands 
of his hearers notified their representatives in the state 
legislature that Smith must not be elected and they were 
obeyed. Martine was made United States senator by a 
vote of forty to four. The machine was wrecked. 

In speaking of the result Governor Wilson said : 

' ' They did not believe I meant what I said and I be- 
lieved they meant what they said. ' ' 

Governor Wilson took up the active duties of his 
office soon after the close of the Martine-Smith contest. 
His first attention was given to the promise embodied in 
his speech accepting the nomination and he announced to 
the voters that he meant to stand by his pledges. He made 
it clear that he was desirous of the support of the people 
when he said: 

"It is not the foolish ardor of too sanguine or too 
radical reform that I urge upon you, but merely the tasks 
that are evident and pressing, the things we have knowl- 
edge and guidance enough to do ; and to do with confidence 
and energy. I merely point out the present business of 
progress and serviceable government, the next stage on 




WOODROW WILSON, Ph. D., Litt. D., L.L.D., PRESIDENT 
OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 







o 

m 



O 
Pi 

Q 
O 

o 




Woodrow Wilson in the Robes of a College Professor. 





""11 ii 




Jli 





The President and his wife, mother of his three daughters. 



WOODROW WILSON 57 

the journey of duty. The path is as inviting as it is plain. 
Shall we hesitate to tread it? I look forward with gen- 
uine pleasure to the prospect of being your comrade upon 
it." 

Governor Wilson was opposed to the rigid observance 
of the three branches of government laid down in the con- 
stitution — the executive, legislative and judicial. Up to 
his tenure of office the state of New Jersey had been gov- 
erned according to these three tenets in a manner that 
never had been intended by the framers of the constitu- 
tion. In short, the governors, legislators and judges had 
pursued their own paths regardless of the others and the 
condition of affairs indicated too plainly there had been 
no co-operation. 

The friends of good government had drawn consola- 
tion from the defeat administered the machine forces in 
the election of Senator Martine but there was a forebod- 
ing of evil in the machinations of the faction led by James 
Nugent, who, it will be remembered, was Smith's right 
hand man. It was known that Nugent was organizing an 
opposition composed of Republicans and Democrats, 
members of the old machines which had failed to defeat 
the governor in a fair and square contest. 

Governor Wilson met the situation by at once sug- 
gesting legislation to abolish for all time the boss system 
of partisan politics. There was universal horror at the 
proposed sacrilege. The governor, however, failed to 
be moved by the excitement and continued his course. 
He held conferences with Republican and Democratic 
representatives and senators without regard for their 
political affiliations, thereby violating another political 
precedent in New Jersey. 

When the legislature convened on January 10th, 1911, 
one of the first measures to come up for consideration was 
the Geran Bill, which contained all the governor's desired 
legislation for direct primary elections. It was of such 
revolutionary character that the legislature listened to 



58 WOODROW WILSON 

the first reading with a smile and the bill was sent to com- 
mittee. 

The measure contemplated turning over to the peo- 
ple all political organizations and provided for the direct 
nomination by primary election of all public officials from 
dog catcher to president, speaking broadly. All candi- 
dates were to receive the indorsement of the people before 
their names were placed on the ballot. In cases where 
conventions would be held for the purpose of naming lead- 
ing candidates, the state or county representatives were to 
receive instructions from the voters through the primary 
as to the manner in which their votes should be cast. It 
meant the elimination of the corporation interest in state 
politics, in short, it meant government by the people. 

Nugent was leader of the opposition to defeat the 
measure. Owing to the majority of Republicans in the 
state senate, he was reasonably sure that the measure 
could be defeated there. He was not satisfied with that 
surety though, and chose to provoke a fight in the hope 
that the house of representatives would be swung to his 
side of the fence and a crushing defeat administered to 
the governor. 

The committee to which the bill had been referred had 
hardly gone into session when a request was received 
from Governor Wilson that he be invited to attend the 
meeting. It was another violation of precedent, but the 
committee could hardly refuse to admit the highest ex- 
ecutive in the state and so the invitation was sent forth. 
Governor "Wilson arrived immediately afterward and 
discussion was begun on the proposed primary law. 

Governor Wilson first convinced the assembled leg- 
islators that he was following his constitutional duty in 
recommending certain legislation. Then he began to talk 
on the Geran Bill. 

For three solid hours he discussed the bill from every 
angle. He answered innumerable questions concerning it 
and ended by convincing the committee that it was a de- 



WOODROW WILSON 59 

sirable piece of legislation from the people's point of view. 
When he had silenced every criticism he appealed to the 
committee to work with him for the reorganization of the 
Democratic party in New Jersey. To the unbounded 
astonishment of Smith and Nugent, the committee urged 
passage of the measure. 

The two immediately took steps to hold a Republican 
caucus, but so many of the Republicans were convinced by 
the governor 's stand that the attempt failed dismally. 

Nugent then attempted to bring about the defeat of 
the measure in the senate, but the bill went to the governor 
for signature with a third more votes than it needed. In 
this manner New Jersey was given the best primary law 
in the union. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE PKESIDENTIAL NOMINEE. 

In the spring of 1912, few persons believed that 
Woodrow Wilson would stand a chance to obtain the 
Democratic nomination for president of the United 
States. Champ Clark of Missouri, speaker of the house 
of representatives, had been making great strides in the 
popular imagination and it was believed by the average 
man on the street that he would be returned as the nom- 
inee at the convention in Baltimore. 

In spite of the astonishing run Clark was making, it 
was conceded that the convention would be the scene of 
a free for all fight. 

The Democratic party was face to face with this fea- 
ture of the situation in selecting its candidate — that none 
of the men who had been before the voters in the several 
primaries had awakened any popular enthusiasm. 

It was believed at the beginning of the campaign that 
Governor Wilson would appeal to the imagination of the 
people. He had not done so, as shown by the results in 
Illinois, California and elsewhere. Gov. Harmon of Ohio 
made no impression whatever upon the country. Rep- 
resentative Underwood had strength in the south. The 
surprise was found in Clark, who had obtained delegates 
at points where it was not believed he had a chance and 
had decisively beaten Wilson in most of the states where 
they had been opposed. 

It was the general understanding in Washington, 
that Clark was used as a stalking horse to beat Wilson. 
There is no doubt this was the original intention of those 
behind him, and some of his supporters, who had not pro- 

60 



WOODROW WILSON 61 

posed that he be taken seriously, were becoming alarmed 
at the strength he had shown. 

Others who had this same purpose in view were con- 
vinced Clark could be nominated and elected, and they 
gave him whole-hearted aid. Clark claimed he had 364y 2 
delegates, of whom many were not conceded to him by 
Governor Wilson, his most serious rival. It was impos- 
sible, however, for the speaker to have the two-thirds 
majority required to assure the nomination. 

It was probable Clark would appear as the strongest 
candidate on the first ballot, but the vote would be fruit- 
less, and others would have to be taken. If the speaker 
could hold his forces together, he would be able at least to 
dictate who should be the nominee, but there were many 
delegates for him who announced their intention to sup- 
port Wilson after they obeyed their initial instructions. 

The opposition to Governor Wilson was so strong, 
however, that it .was expected to withdraw a number of 
delegates from the New Jersey candidate, sufficient to off- 
set any additions he might obtain from others. 

Underwood had a great deal of strength with the con- 
servatives, and especially the business men, and they 
would prefer either him or Harmon. The latter hoped to 
get definitely into the running by securing a tremendous 
majority in Ohio. His hopes failed of realization, he was 
considered definitely out of the race. 

The popularity of Col. Roosevelt was shown to be 
so great that the Democratic leaders began to realize that 
if they were to win in November, they must have a stand- 
ard bearer who would appeal to the people. The primary 
results proved disappointing in showing there was no 
such Democrat before the public, unless it was Governor 
Wilson. This aspect of the situation caused a great deal 
of talk as to the advisability of renominating William Jen- 
nings Bryan. The Nebraskan, however, as shown by his 
attitude in Iowa, refused to permit the selection of dele- 
gates instructed to vote for him. 



62 WOODROW WILSON 

In the months that followed the tide of popular opin- 
ion ebbed and flowed, sometimes in favor of Governor 
Wilson and at other times for Clark. The delegates be- 
gan gathering for the convention in Baltimore early in 
June and on June 25th the chairman's gavel descended, 
calling the body to order. 

It was one of the wildest and noisiest in the history 
of Democratic politics. With Roosevelt looming on the 
horizon as the possible Republican choice, the Democratic 
leaders were worried. For several days the balloting pro- 
ceeded with Clark a favorite. It was not until July 1st 
that the delegates began to desert the speaker and sup- 
port Governor Wilson. Their action precipitated a dead- 
lock that lasted all day and far into the afternoon of 
July 2nd. 

The night session was a bitter struggle, with no signs 
of weakening by any of the contestants. It was at this 
critical moment that Governor Wilson. was deserted by 
William Jennings Bryan, who threw his strength to the 
support of Governor Kern of Indiana. The Clark leaders 
were irritated at Bryan's attitude throughout the whole 
convention and considered denouncing him on the floor, 
but none would listen to the suggestion. The delegates 
were tired and wished to return to their homes. 

On the following day the general feeling was that 
Governor Wilson would be nominated and the convention 
brought to a close. It was a true forecast. 

The New York delegates were still in caucus when 
the convention met. The information that came from the 
caucus room was that the New York vote of ninety would 
continue to be cast for Clark. The vote in the caucus 
showed : for Clark, 78 ; for Wilson 10 ; for Underwood, 2. 

At noon Chairman James directed the calling of the 
roll for the forty-third time. The hall was quiet when 
Illinois was reached. When Roger C. Sullivan announced 
18 votes for Clark; 40 for Wilson, there was great cheer- 
ing. Chairman James pounded the table with his gavel 



WOODROW WILSON 63 

and finally quieted the uproar. "Illinois, under the unit 
rule, cast 58 votes for Wilson, ' ' he announced, and another 
cheer greeted the shift. This gave Wilson a clear gain of 
50 votes in Illinois. The New Jersey governor continued 
to gain. In Iowa he added V/2 to his total vote. 

New York announced its vote for Clark. There was 
cheering as the Clark vote of 16 in West Virginia went 
over to Wilson. In Wisconsin Wilson gained one more. 
The totals on the forty-third ballot were: Wilson, 602; 
Clark, 329 ; Underwood, 98y 2 ; Harmon, 28 ; Foss 27 ; Kern, 
1 ; Bryan 1. This gave Wilson a gain of 108 and Clark a 
loss of 101. Underwood lost 5%. 

Once more the call of the roll began. It was the forty- 
fourth ballot and Wilson gained one in Arizona. Col- 
orado climbed aboard the "band wagon," giving Wil- 
son a gain of nine. This made the vote 10 to 2 for Wil- 
son. One of the two was Mrs. Anna B. Pitzer, sister-in- 
law of Speaker Clark. In the totals, Wilson's vote was 
629, a gain of 27, compared with the forty-third ballot. 
Clark dropped from 329 to 306. Underwood had 99 votes 
and Foss 27. 

Although Governor Wilson made slight gains early 
in the forty-fifth ballot, there were no serious breaks in 
the dwindling Clark ranks. New York's 90 again went 
to Clark, and hope of a nomination on this ballot was lost. 
Wilson advanced from 629 to 633. Clark remained at 
306. 

The end came when, at the beginning of the forty- 
sixth ballot, Senator Bankhead of Alabama, manager 
for the Underwood forces, mounted the platform, and 
withdrew his candidate. 

"Mr. Underwood entered this contest hoping that 
he might secure the nomination from this convention," 
Senator Bankhead said, ' ' but I desire to say for him that 
his first and greatest hope was that, through this move- 
ment, he might be able to eliminate and eradicate for all 
time every remaining vestige of factional feeling in this 
country. 



64 WOODROW WILSON 

' ' Mr. Underwood today would willingly and anxious- 
ly forego this nomination if he had succeeded, and if the 
country has concluded the Mason and Dixon line has been 
trampled out and this is once more a united country. We 
have demonstrated here my friends, in my judgment, that 
that sectional feeling no longer exists. 

"The liberal support that Mr. Underwood has had 
from the East satisfies us that if an opportunity were of- 
fered to nominate this splendid man they are ready and 
would hasten to his aid. 

"He and his friends everywhere stand ready to give 
the nominee of this convention their hearty support. He 
has stood upon every platform that has been written since 
1896. He will stand upon any platform that this conven- 
tion may write. I would not undertake, knowing him as 
I do, to say that all of its planks — and I don't know what 
they are — would meet his judgment, but he is a Democrat 
and stands for the success of his party." A Delegate: 
"Vice President?" Senator Bankhead: "Vice Presi- 
dent? No!" (Applause.) 

"No friend of the Democratic party would dare sug- 
gest to take that man from his present position," he con- 
tinued, "if they cannot elevate him to the highest office 
in the land. Vice president! Anybody can sit in the 
Vice Presidential chair. It is a kind of an ornament 
only. Even I, human as I am, could sit in that chair and 
say 'The gentleman from New York moves to adjourn,' 
and that is all. 

"This great Democrat, the Democracy's best asset; 
this great Democrat who has made it possible for the 
Democratic party to win in the next contest, will stay 
where he is and perform the duties that he has been per- 
forming without complaint. 

"I withdraw his name from before the convention, 
and he authorizes me to release from their obligations all 
the friends who have been instructed to vote for him, 
which they have so loyally done so long as his name was 



WOODROW WILSON 65 

before the convention. His friends are at liberty to 
vote for whom they please. ' ' 

Senator Stone of Missouri asked that the unanimous 
consent be given that the roll call be vacated, and that he 
be given unanimous consent to make a statement. Con- 
sent was given. 

"I desire, following the statement of Senator Bank- 
head,' ' said Senator Stone, "to say that, speaking for 
Mr. Clark, I will release, if release be necessary, any ob- 
ligation to him imposed upon any delegation in this con- 
vention. The delegates who have stood by him so loyally 
will be remembered by him and his friends with devoted 
affection. I would not have a delegation here stand for 
another ballot under a sense of obligation to him; I 
would have them act as they now think best." 

Chairman James then announced that Mayor Fitz- 
gerald of Boston asked unanimous consent to vacate the 
roll call, Mayor Fitzgerald announced the withdrawal of 
Foss' name and said his state would vote for Wilson. 
The roll call was further vacated and J. J. Fitzgerald of 
New York was given consent to make a statement. He 
said: 

"In the hope that this convention may adjourn with- 
out bitterness, without hard feelings, without rancor, and 
that we may effect the success of the candidates of this 
convention, in order to demonstrate, no matter how hard 
we may strive for the mastery of our honest opinion, we 
are willing to acquiesce in what manifestly appears to be 
the overwhelming desire of this convention ; 

"I move, as a member of the New York delegation, 
anxious that the electoral vote of New York should be 
in the Democratic column, that the roll call be dispensed 
with, and the nomination of Wilson be made by accla- 
mation.' ' 

When Mr. Fitzgerald concluded, the weary delegates 
stood on their chairs and shouted. The Missouri and New 
York members alone sat unmoved throughout the demon- 
stration. 



66 WOODROW WILSON 

Wilson adherents dashed about the hall, shaking 
hands, hugging each other, and dancing with glee. The 
aisles were jammed, and the sergeants-at-arms and the 
police fought in vain to quiet the throng. It took fifteen 
minutes for them to restore order. 

Finally, Chairman James announced that the plan 
proposed by representative Fitzgerald to nominate by 
acclamation could be carried only by unanimous consent. 
Senator Eeed of Missouri took the platform to object 
to this scheme. 

"Without the slightest desire to express any senti- 
ment or rancor, I object because Missouri wants to be 
recorded on this ballot for Champ Clark," he said. The 
Clark forces cheered. 

The regular order was demanded, and the forty-sixth 
and final roll call of the states was begun. After it was 
finished, the nomination of Wilson was made unanimous. 

The convention adjourned sine die at 2 a. m. July 3, 
1912. 

The early morning session was devoted to the nom- 
ination of a vice presidential candidate. Governor Mar- 
shall's nomination was contested principally by Governor 
John Burke of North Dakota. Marshall won the place by 
acclamation following the second ballot after Governor 
Burke and Senator George E. Chamberlain of Oregon 
had been withdrawn as candidates. 

Even the news that he was Democracy's nominee 
could not stir Governor Wilson into an emotional stam- 
pede. He received word of the nomination over the tele- 
phone from Baltimore, went up-stairs to notify Mrs. Wil- 
son that a projected trip to Europe would have to be 
abandoned and on coming down again, made this state- 
ment : ' l The honor is as great as can come to any man 
by the nomination of a party, especially in the circum- 
stances, and I hope I appreciate its true value, but just 
at this moment I feel the tremendous responsibility it in- 
volves even more than I feel the honor. I hope with all 



WOODROW WILSON 67 

my heart that the party will never have reason to regret 
it" 

The news was received in a spirit of solemnity. There 
were no cheers, no exclamations, no shouts. Even the 
soldiers on the rifle range near by ceased fire, and it was 
some time before the first demonstration commenced. 
The telegraph wires were clogged within ten minutes 
after the nomination was announced with more than a 
thousand personal messages to Governor Wilson. 

Mrs. Wilson's one expressed regret was that Georgia, 
her native state, had not come to her husband's cause 
earlier in the battle. Governor Wilson's genial smile be- 
fore he became the nominee was inspired by the support 
of Virginia, the state of his birth. 

* ' That is fine, ' ' he said, l ' to feel my own native state 
coming over to me. ' ' 

Informal receptions and reading of the thousands of 
personal messages occupied the governor's time until he 
retired. 

In the Wilson home when the nomination was an- 
nounced were seven persons, Governor Wilson himself, 
his wife, three daughters, Miss Hester Hasford, author 
of a biography of Governor Wilson, and with her Miss 
Mary Hoyt of Baltimore, a cousin of Mrs. Wilson. 

He received the news over the phone through some 
unknown person; he came out of the library into the 
main reception room of his home. His face was marked 
by characteristic expression of solemnity and strain under 
perfect control. 

He looked about for members of the family, but they 
had gone out one by one out of sheer strain, speechless, 
to their rooms. The governor went upstairs, came down 
with Mrs. Wilson on his arm, almost a suspicion of a tear 
in his eye, but Mrs. Wilson was smiling. A group of re- 
porters who had planned to rush in, came in very quietly 
with hats in hands and throats choked. 

Mrs. Wilson was very much pleased and told things 



68 WOODROW WILSON 

to the reporters that they had not guessed. She said 
Governor "Wilson had abandoned hope last Friday and 
had planned a trip to Europe. He almost surrendered 
when Clark's column passed a point of majority; he 
wrote to Col. W. F. McCombs, releasing all the delegates, 
but no one would accept release. 

After the nomination was made, a deluge of callers 
started to the cottage. They streamed by every road and 
pathway to the "Little White House," swarmed over the 
lawn, climbed on the porch and all over. Between ap- 
plause, they called him "Woodrow," " Governor" and 
"Wilson," but most addressed him as "the next Presi- 
dent of the United States." 

Miss Jessie Wilson opened the campaign by pinning 
buttons on callers. 

Governor Wilson sent the following telegram to Gov- 
ernor Marshall of Indianapolis : 

"Sincere congratulations. I shall look forward with 
pleasure to my associations with you." 

"Governor Marshall bears the highest reputation 
both as an executive and as a Democrat, and I feel honored 
by having him as a running mate," said the Governor. 
"He is, I am happy to say, a valued personal friend of 
mine as well as a fellow Democrat." 

The following week Governor Wilson issued his for- 
mal acceptance of the Democratic nomination for Presi- 
dent of the United States. In it he mentioned the issues 
that were at stake and summarized the events that made 
necessary a victory for the Democratic party. He said : 

"We stand in the presence of an awakened Nation, im- 
patient of partisan makebelieve. The public man who 
does not realize the fact and feel its stimulation must be 
singularly unsusceptible to the influences that stir in every 
quarter about him. The Nation has awakened to a sense 
of neglected ideals and neglected duties ; to a conscious- 
ness that the rank and file of her people find life very hard 
to sustain, that her young men find opportunity embar- 



WOODROW WILSON 69 

rassed, and that her older men find business difficult to 
renew and maintain because of circumstances of privilege 
and private advantage which have interlaced their subtle 
threads throughout almost every part of the framework 
of our present law. She has awakened to the knowledge 
that she has lost certain cherished liberties and has wasted 
priceless resources which she had solemnly undertaken to 
hold in trust for posterity and for all mankind ; and to the 
conviction that she stands confronted with an occasion for 
constructive statesmanship such as has not arisen since 
the great days in which her Government was set up. 

"It is hard to sum up the great task, but apparently 
this is the sum of the matter : There are two great things to 
do. One is to set up the rule of justice and of right in such 
matters as the tariff, the regulation of the trusts, and the 
prevention of monopoly, the adaptation of our banking 
and currency laws to the various uses to which our people 
must put them, the treatment of those who do the daily 
labor in our factories and mines and throughout all our 
great commercial and industrial undertakings, and the 
political life of the people of the Philippines, for whom we 
hold governmental power in trust, for their service, not 
our own. The other, the additional duty, is the great task 
of protecting our people and our resources and of keeping 
open to the whole people the doors of opportunity through 
which they must, generation by generation, pass if they 
are to make conquest of their fortunes in health, in free- 
dom, in peace, and in contentment. In the performance 
of this second duty we are face to face with questions of 
conservation and of development, questions of forests and 
water powers and mines and waterways, of the building 
of an adequate merchant marine, and the opening of every 
highway and facility and the setting up of every safeguard 
needed by a great, industrious, expanding nation. 

"These are all great matters on which everybody 
should be heard. We have got into trouble in recent years 
chiefly because these large things, which ought to have 



70 WOODROW "WILSON 

been handled by taking counsel with as large a number of 
people as possible, because they touched every interest 
and the life of every class and region, have in fact been too 
often handled in private conference. They have been set- 
tled by very small, and often deliberately exclusive, groups 
of men who undertook to speak for the whole nation, or 
rather for themselves in the terms of the whole nation — 
very honestly it may be true, but very ignorantly some- 
times, and very shortsightedly, too — a poor substitute for 
genuine common counsel. No group of directors, economic 
or political, can speak for a people. They have neither 
the point of view nor the knowledge. Our difficulty is not 
that wicked and designing men have plotted against us, 
but that our common affairs have been determined upon 
too narrow a view, and by too private an initiative. Our 
task is now to effect a great readjustment and get the 
forces of the whole people more into play. We need no 
revolution; we need no excited change; we need only a 
new point of view and a new method and spirit of counsel. 

"No man can be just who is not free, and no man who 
has to show favor ought to undertake the solemn responsi- 
bility of government, in any rank or post whatever, least 
of all in the supreme post of President of the United 
States. 

"To be free is not necessarily to be wise. But wisdom 
comes with counsel, with the frank and free conference of 
untrammeled men united in the common interest. Should 
I be entrusted with the great office of President, I would 
seek counsel wherever it could be had upon free terms. I 
know the temper of the great convention which nominated 
me ; I know the temper of the country which lay back of 
that convention and spoke through it. I heed with deep 
thankfulness the message you bring me from it. I feel 
that I am surrounded by men whose principles and ambi- 
tions are those of true servants of the people. I thank 
God, and will take courage. ' ' 



CHAPTER V 
WOODROW WILSON ELECTED PRESIDENT. 

The Presidential campaign of 1912 was one of the 
most spectacular in the history of the country. The Dem- 
ocrats refrained from muck raking while the two Repub- 
lican factions flew at each other hammer and tongs. The 
entire country seethed with factionalism and many 
Republicans, disgusted with the tactics employed by their 
champions, swung over to the Democratic side and 
announced themselves for Governor Wilson. 

Both Republican factions did not hesitate to cast 
aspersions on the man they chose to call the ''school- 
master candidate," but their efforts came to naught. 
The people were too well acquainted with Governor Wil- 
son's career as a writer and a speaker. He was known 
to the country as a student of government and his firm 
stand in the fight against machine politics in New Jersey 
brought him before the people as a champion of direct 
popular government. 

The Democratic party stood united behind its can- 
didates. The men who had opposed Governor Wilson on 
the floor of the convention took the stump in all parts of 
the country and urged his election. Among them were 
Governor Kern of Indiana, William Jennings Bryan, 
Senator Underwood, Speaker Champ Clark and a host 
of others. One thing was apparent: there was no split 
in the Democratic party. 

Election day fell on November 4th, 1912, and the 
country was on edge awaiting the outcome. It is certain 
the election will be long remembered by the people. 

From the beginning of the counting of the votes it 
was apparent that the Democratic party had won an over- 

71 



72 WOODROW WILSON 

whelming victory. The first returns received came from 
Boston, where a lone precinct gave Roosevelt and John- 
son a substantial lead. Later returns deprived this return 
of any significance. Then came New York, reports giv- 
ing Governor Wilson a constantly growing plurality. 
Other states quickly took their position in the Wilson 
column, one here and there failing to do so and giving 
their electoral votes to Roosevelt. Occasionally votes 
from the smaller Republican states gave indications of a 
Taft preference. 

But there was no possibility of doubting at any 
time that Wilson and Marshall had been selected by the 
American people as their next President and Vice-Pres- 
ident. In short, it was a day of victory for the Democrats, 
a day of satisfaction for the Progressives, a day of gloom 
for the Republicans. Governor Wilson, from the first 
returns, apparently carried every big state except Illinois, 
Kansas, Michigan, Washington and Pennsylvania, which 
were swept by Roosevelt. 

Governor Wilson's election was so big as almost to 
stagger the imagination. He was swept into office by one 
of the largest electoral votes ever received by a candi- 
date. His popular vote also was tremendous. As the 
latest returns indicated, he carried all the middle Atlantic 
states, except Pennsylvania ; the ' ' Solid South ' ' and many 
western states in which it was believed Roosevelt had the 
best chance. He drew a large vote in New York, Roose- 
velt's native state, and California, the home of Governor 
Johnson. 

Mr. Wilson unquestionably appealed to the voters 
by his career, his record and his personality. His appear- 
ance on the stump won him much support, and the way 
in which he explained the policy he proposed to enforce 
and his independence of Murphy, head of Tammany Hall ; 
his defeat of Smith, the New Jersey politician; and his 
general independence of bosses, all favorably impressed 
the voters. 



WOODROW WILSON 73 

The later count of the electoral vote told the story. 
Out of the forty-eight states, Governor Wilson carried 
forty. California, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, 
South Dakota, and Washington went for Roosevelt. Only 
two states, Utah and Vermont, declared for Taft. The 
total electoral vote and 531 of which 435 were cast for 
Governor Wilson. 

There was unrestrained joy over the news of the 
election. The president-elect took care not to be car- 
ried away by the flood of sentiment and at once directed 
his energies to outlining his procedure in the months 
between the election and the inauguration. The Sixty- 
second Congress was completing its labors and the work 
of the Pujo committee, which had been appointed to 
investigate business conditions, was creating daily sensa- 
tions through the press. It was declared that the busi- 
ness outlook was bad and all eyes were turned to the new 
President. The demand for an expression of his opinion 
became so insistent that he issued a statement, while on 
a visit to Staunton, Va., in which he said : 

"We are learning again that the service of humanity 
is the best business of mankind, and that the business of 
mankind must be set forward by the government which 
mankind sets up, in order that justice may be done and 
mercy not forgotten. All the world, I say, is turning now, 
as never before, to this conception of the elevation of 
humanity, not of the preferred few, not of those who can 
by superior wit or unusual opportunity struggle to the 
top, no matter whom they trample under feet, but of 
men who cannot struggle to the top and who must, there- 
fore, be looked to by the forces of society, for they have 
no single force by which they can serve themselves. 

"There must be heart in a government and in the 
policies of the government. And men must look to it, 
that they do unto others as they would have others do 
unto them. This has long been the theme of the discourses 



74 WOODROW WILSON 

of Christian ministers, but it has not come to be part of 
the bounden duties of Ministers of State. 

This is the solemnity that comes upon a man when 
he knows that he is about to be clothed with the responsi- 
bilities of a great office, in which will center part of the 
example which America shall set to the world itself. Do 
you suppose that that gives a man a very light hearted 
Christmas? I could pick out some gentlemen, not con- 
fined to one state — gentlemen likely to be associated with 
the government of the United States — who have not yet 
had it dawned upon their intelligence what it is that Gov- 
ernment is set up to do. There are men who will have 
to be mastered in order that they shall be made instru- 
ments of justice and mercy. 

"The word that stands at the center of what has to 
be done is a very interesting word indeed. It has hitherto 
been supposed to be a word of charity, a word of philan- 
thropy, a word which has to do with the operations of the 
human heart, rather than with the operations of the 
human mind. I mean the word ' service. ' The one thing 
that the business men of the United States are now dis- 
covering, some of them for themselves, and some of them 
by suggestion, is that they are not going to be allowed to 
make any money except for a quid pro quo, that they 
must render a service or get nothing, and that in the reg- 
ulation of business the government, that is to say, the 
moral judgment of the majority must determine whether 
what they are doing is a service or not a service, and 
that everything in business and politics is going to be 
reduced to the standard. 'Are you giving anything to 
society when you want to take anything out of society?' 
is the question to put to them. ' ' 

A short time later, while on a visit to Chicago, the 
president-elect addressed a meeting of business men on 
the same subject and made it clear that he was opposed 
to government by corporations. In this manner he passed 



WOODROW WILSON 75 

the days preceding his inauguration which took place in 
Washington, D. C, on March 4th, 1913. 

A crowd of about 300,000 persons was on hand 
between the Capitol and the disbanding point at Washing- 
ton Circle, a mile and a half west of the Capitol and a 
few blocks beyond the White House. 

As it started later than any previous inaugural 
parade and was a record-breaker in size, darkness had 
begun to fall by the time the first thousands of civic and 
semi-military sections that followed the military and 
naval divisions had reached the reviewing stand. 

There were picked soldiers and sailors from the 
chief of staff of the army down. Picturesque Indian 
chiefs, led by Julius Harburge of the Sioux nation, and 
Chief Hollow Horn Bear, clacked by on their ponies like 
the grand first part of Colonel W. F. Cody's Educational 
Exhibition. And there were the glories of the Annapolis 
and West Point cadets corps swinging by. There were 
blocks and blocks of olive drab, glinting metal guns and 
batteries of field artillery. 

The howling Princeton students did not merge from 
the blackness of night into the glow of the Court of Honor 
spotlights until almost 7 o'clock, with the president and 
vice-president and their families waiting to see this par- 
ticular band of patriots explode into view under the 
leadership of the Honorable Paul Myers, better known 
as "Fat" Myers. 

It may be stated that the particular point of the 
parade route occupied by the Princeton students never 
was apathetic — not while the Hon. "Fat" Myers, the 
Hon. Lambkin Heiniger (just Lamb if you know him 
intimately), the Hon. "Skinny" Handy and the song and 
cheer leader of the student delegation from President 
Wilson's old college, the Hon. Raleigh Warner, even 
better known in academic circles, of course, as "Truly" 
Warner — were on the job. 

The arrival of General Sulzer of New York in front 



76 WOODBOW WILSON 

of the reviewing stand in the act of being a horseman, 
was one of the big events of the afternoon. Governors 
doffed their hats occasionally and the governor of New 
York waved his broad-brimmed sombrero from the 
moment the expectant throngs caught sight of him loom- 
ing above the marchers far to the east, until he had faded 
in the gathering gloom of the west. 

Among those present were: General Miles in his 
gold lace glory, who, crossing to the eastern end of the 
president's review stand, among the early arrivals, had 
the entire Court of Honor to himself. Former Governor 
David R. Francis of Missouri and George Young Bauchle 
entered the court simultaneously. Senor Pezet, minister 
from Peru; Mr. and Mrs. Perry Belmont; Mr. Honor- 
able Jonkheer J. London, minister from the Netherlands. 
William Jennings Bryan, Justice Charles E. Hughes and 
Mrs. Hughes, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senator 
Tillman, and many others of note, arrived soon after- 
ward. 

The great stand across the way from the president's 
big stand by this time was filled and it held 35,000 men 
and women. The seats stretching away on the presi- 
dent 's stand itself were all occupied. 

These two stands were called the Monticello stands 
because their wide columns rimmed above with white 
trellis work were copied from the porticos of the house 
that Thomas Jefferson planned and Mrs. Martin W. 
Littleton discovered. 

President and Mrs. Wilson appeared at the rail 
of the reviewing stand. Next came Vice-President 
Marshall. The president and vice-president both carried 
their hats and bowed repeatedly in answer to the cheers 
that greeted them. 

At the edge of the stand President Wilson and Vice- 
President Marshall stood a step in advance of the women 
of the party, who remained seated except when something 



WOODROW WILSON 77 

so extraordinary as the Honorable "Fat" Myers from 
Princeton, the Indian chiefs, Tammany, Governor Sulzer 
or the West Point or Annapolis cadets went past. 

Mrs. "Wilson and Mrs. Marshall sat to the left slightly 
back of the president and vice-president. The three 
Misses Wilson sat or stood back of Mrs. Wilson and 
ranged behind the president's daughters were the presi- 
dent's sister, Mrs. Addie Howe, and the "White House 
Baby, ' ' tiny Josephine Cothran, aged 14 months. 

The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice 
Edward D. White of the United States Supreme Court. 
It was a solemn moment when the president-elect raised 
his right hand and swore to uphold the constitution and 
rights of the United States. 

When the ceremony was finished, President Wilson 
turned to the throng and delivered his inauguration 
address. It follows : 

1 ' There has been a change of government. It began 
two years ago, when the House of Representatives became 
Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been 
completed. The Senate about to assemble will also be 
Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President 
have been put into the hands of Democrats. What does 
the change mean? That is the question that is uppermost 
in our minds today. That is the question I am going to 
try to answer, in order, if I may, to interpret the occa- 
sion. 

"It means much more than the mere success of a 
party. The success of a party means little except when 
the Nation is using that party for a large and definite 
purpose. No one can mistake the purpose for which the 
Nation now seeks to use the Democratic party. It seeks 
to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point 
of view. Some old things with which we had grown 
familiar, and which had begun to creep into the very 
habit of our thought and of our lives, have altered their 



78 WOODKOW WILSON 

aspect as we have latterly looked critically upon them, 
with fresh, awakened eyes ; have dropped their disguises 
and shown themselves alien and sinister. Some new 
things, as we look frankly upon them, willing to compre- 
hend their real character, have come to assume the aspect 
of things long believed in and familiar, stuff of our own 
convictions. We have been refreshed by a new insight 
into our own life. 

"We see that in many things that life is very great. 
It is incomparably great in its material aspects, in its 
body of wealth, in the diversity and sweep of its energy, 
in the industries which have been built up by the genius of 
individual men and the limitless enterprise of groups of 
men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral force. We 
have built up, moreover, a great system of government, 
which has stood through a long age as in many respects a 
model for those who seek to set liberty upon foundations 
that will endure against fortuitous change, against storm 
and accident. 

1 ' But the evil has come with the good, and much fine 
gold has been corroded. With riches has come inexcusable 
waste. We have squandered a great part of what we 
might have used, and have not stopped to conserve the 
exceeding bounty of nature, without which our genius for 
enterprise would have been worthless and impotent, 
scorning to be careful, shamefully prodigal as well as 
admirably efficient. We have been proud of our indus- 
trial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped 
thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of 
lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the 
fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women 
and children upon the dead weight and burden of it all 
has fallen pitilessly the years through. The groans and 
agony of it all had not yet reached our ears, the solemn, 
moving undertone of our life, coming up out of the mines 
and factories and out of every home where the struggle 
had its intimate and familiar seat. With the great Gov- 



WOODROW WILSON 79 

eminent went many deep secret things which we too long 
delayed to look into and scrutinize with candid, fearless 
eyes. The great Government we loved has too often been 
made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those 
who used it had forgotten the people. 

"At last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life 
as a whole. We see the bad with the good, the debased 
and decadent with the sound and vital. With this vision 
we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to recon- 
sider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the 
good, to purify and humanize every process of our com- 
mon life without weakening or sentimentalizing it. There 
has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in 
our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been 
"Let every man look out for himself, let every genera- 
tion look out for itself, ' ' while we reared giant machinery 
which made it impossible that any but those who stood 
at the levers of control should have a chance to look out 
for themselves. We had not forgotten our morals. We 
remembered well enough that we had set up a policy which 
was meant to serve the humblest as well as the most 
powerful, with an eye single to the standards of justice 
and fair play, and remembered it with pride. But we 
were very heedless and in a hurry to be great. 

"We have come now to the sober second thought. 
The scales of heedlessness have fallen from our eyes. We 
have made up our minds to square every process of our 
national life again with the standard we so proudly set up 
at the beginning and have always carried at our hearts. 
Our work is a work of restoration. 

"We have itemized with some degree of particularity 
the things that ought to be altered and here are some of 
the chief items : A tariff which cuts us off from our proper 
part in the commerce of the world, violates the just prin- 
ciples of taxation, and makes the Government a facile 
instrument in the hands of private interests; a banking 
and currency system based upon the necessity of the 



80 WOODROW WILSON 

Government to sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly 
adapted to concentrating cash and restricting credits ; an 
industrial system which, take it on all its sides, financial 
as well as administrative, holds capital in leading strings, 
restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, 
and exploits without renewing or conserving the natural 
resources of the country ; a body of agricultural activities 
never yet given the efficiency of great business under- 
takings or served as it should be through the instrumen- 
tality of science taken directly to the farm, or afforded 
the facilities of credit best suited to its practical needs ; 
watercourses undeveloped, waste places unreclaimed, 
forests untended, fast disappearing without plan or pros- 
pect of renewal, unregarded waste heaps at every mine. 
We have studied as perhaps no other nation has the most 
effective means of production, but we have not studied 
cost or economy as we should either as organizers of 
industry, as statesmen, or as individuals. 

"Nor have we studied and perfected the means by 
which government may be put at the service of humanity, 
in safeguarding the health of the Nation, the health of its 
men and its women and its children, as well as their rights 
in the struggle for existence. This is no sentimental duty. 
The firm basis of government is justice, not pity. These 
are matters of justice. There can be no equality or oppor- 
tunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if 
men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, 
their very vitality, from the consequences of great indus- 
trial and social processes which they can not alter, con- 
trol, or singly cope with. Society must see to it that it 
does not itself crush or weaken or damage its own con- 
stituent parts. The first duty of law is to keep sound the 
society it serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws, and 
laws determining conditions of labor which individuals 
are powerless to determine for themselves are intimate 
parts of the very business of justice and legal efficiency. 
"These are some of the things we ought to do, and 



WOODROW WILSON 81 

not leave the others undone, the old-fashioned, never-to- 
be-neglected, fundamental safeguarding of property and 
of individual right. This is the high enterprise of the new 
day : To lift everything that concerns our life as a Nation 
to the light that shines from the hearthfire of every man's 
conscience and vision of the right. It is inconceivable 
that we should do this as partisans ; it is inconceivable we 
should do it in ignorance of the facts as they are or in 
blind haste. We shall restore, not destroy. We shall deal 
with our economic system as it is and as it may be mod- 
ified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper 
to write upon ; and step by step we shall make it what it 
should be, in the spirit of those who question their own 
wisdom and seek counsel and knowledge, not shallow self- 
satisfaction or the excitement of excursions whither they 
can not tell. Justice, and only justice, shall always be 
our motto. 

' ' And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. 
The Nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn 
passion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, 
of government too often debauched and made an instru- 
ment of evil. The feelings with which we face this new 
age of right and opportunity sweep across our heart- 
strings like some air out of God's own presence, where 
justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the 
brother are one. We know our task to be no mere task 
of politics but a task which shall search us through and 
through, whether we be able to understand our time and 
the need of our people, whether we be indeed their spokes- 
men and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to 
comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high 
course of action. 

' ' This is not a day of triumph ; it is a day of dedica- 
tion. Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces 
of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives 
hang in the balance ; men's hopes call upon us to say what 
we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? who 



82 WOODROW WILSON 

dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, 
all forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I 
will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain 
me!" 



CHAPTER VI 
A FEARLESS PRESIDENT. 

President Wilson wasted no time in placing in prac- 
tice the ideas he had formulated during a lifetime study of 
scientific government. One of his first announcements 
was that he would not be bothered with office seekers, and 
the statement was couched in such terms that everybody 
knew he meant exactly what he said. 

The President used the utmost discretion in appoint- 
ing his cabinet. There was considerable speculation until 
the final announcement was made. The officers were Wil- 
liam Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State; William G. 
McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury ; L. M. Garrison, Sec- 
retary of War; Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy; 
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior; A. S. 
Burleson, Postmaster General; J. C. McReynolds, Attor- 
ney General; and D. F. Houston, Secretary of Agri- 
culture. President Wilson showed by his choice that he 
had applied his knowledge of men in the picking of the 
cabinet officers rather than rely on the political service 
the old line politicians had done him. 

He had been an exponent of free trade since he took 
up the study of political economy while a college student 
and, having formulated his plans, called a special session 
of Congress to listen to his views. In doing so he reverted 
to an old precedent, established by George Washigton and 
John Adams. They had delivered their messages directly 
to Congress, instead of merely sending the written copy 
for the clerk of the House to read. President Wilson pro- 
posed to get on familiar terms with the country's law- 
makers. 

The special session met on April 8, 1913, a month 

83 



84 WOODROW WILSON 

after the inauguration. The eyes of the country were on 
the President, as general industrial unrest was threaten- 
ing. The galleries of the House were crowded when the 
President made his appearance. When he reached the 
platform, immediately in back of the clerk, Speaker Clark 
announced : 

"Senators and Representatives, I have the dis- 
tinguished honor of presenting the President of the 
United States." 

There was prolonged applause from the floor and the 
galleries, while the President acknowledged the ovation 
with a smile. When the tumult died away, he began his 
address : 

"Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, gentlemen of the Con- 
gress, I am very glad indeed to have this opportunity to 
address the two Houses directly and to verify for myself 
the impression that the President of the United States is 
a person, not a mere department of the Government hail- 
ing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power, 
sending messages, not speaking naturally and with his 
own voice — that he is a human being trying to co-operate 
with other human beings in a common service. After this 
pleasant experience, I shall feel quite normal in all our 
dealings with one another. 

"I have called the Congress together in extraor- 
dinary session because a duty was laid upon the party now 
in power, at the recent elections, which it ought to perform 
promptly, in order that the burden carried by the people 
under existing law may be lightened as soon as possible, 
and in order, also, that the business interests of the coun- 
try may not be kept too long in suspense as to what the 
fiscal changes are to be, to which they will be required to 
adjust themselves. It is clear to the whole country that 
the tariff duties must be altered. They must be changed 
to meet the radical alteration in the conditions of our 
economic life which the country has witnessed within the 
last generation. While the whole face and method of our 



WOODROW WILSON 85 

industrial and commercial life were being changed beyond 
recognition, the tariff schedules have remained what they 
were before the change began, or have moved in the direc- 
tion they were given when no large circumstance of our 
industrial development was what it is today. Our task is 
to square them with the actual facts. The sooner that is 
done the sooner we shall escape from suffering from the 
facts and the sooner our men of business will be free to 
thrive by the law of nature — the nature of free business — 
instead of by the law of legislation and artificial arrange- 
ment. 

1 'We have seen tariff legislation wander very far 
afield in our day — very far, indeed, from the field in which 
our prosperity might have had a normal growth and stim- 
ulation. No one who looks the facts squarely in the face or 
knows anything that lies beneath the surface of action can 
fail to perceive the principles upon which recent tariff leg- 
islation has been based. We long ago passed beyond the 
modest notion of 'protecting' the industries of the country 
and moved boldly forward to the idea that they were 
entitled to the direct patronage of the Government. For a 
long time — a time so long that the men now active in pub- 
lic policy hardly remember the conditions that preceded 
it — we have sought in our tariff schedules to give each 
group of manufacturers or producers what they them- 
selves thought that they needed in order to maintain a 
practically exclusive market as against the rest of the 
world. Consciously or unconsciously, we have built up a 
set of privileges and exemptions from competition behind 
which it was easy by any, even the crudest, forms of com- 
bination to organize monopoly; until at last nothing is 
normal, nothing is obliged to stand the tests of efficiency 
and economy, in our world of big business, but everything 
thrives by concerted arrangement. Only new principles 
of action will save us from a final hard crystallization of 
monoply and a complete loss of the influences that quicken 
enterprise and keep independent energy alive. 



86 WOODROW WILSON 

' 'It is plain what those principles must be. We must 
abolish everything that bears even the semblance of priv- 
ilege or of any kind of artificial advantage, and put our 
business men and producers under the stimulation of a 
constant necessity to be efficient, economical, and enter- 
prising, masters of competitive supremacy, better work- 
ers and merchants than any in the world. Aside from the 
duties laid upon articles which we do not, and probably 
can not, produce, therefore, and the duties laid upon lux- 
uries and merely for the sake of the revenues they yield, 
the object of the tariff duties henceforth laid must be 
effective competition, the whetting of American wits by 
contest with the wits of the rest of the world. 

"It would be unwise to move toward this end head- 
long, with reckless haste, or with strokes that cut at the 
very roots of what has grown up amongst us by long pro- 
cess and at our own invitation. It does not alter a thing to 
upset it and break it and deprive it of a chance to change. 
It destroys it. We must make changes in our fiscal laws, 
in our fiscal system, whose object is development, a more 
free and wholesome development, not revolution or upset 
or confusion. We must build up trade, especially foreign 
trade. We need the outlet and the enlarged field of energy 
more than we ever did before. We must build up industry 
as well, and must adopt freedom in the place of artificial 
stimulation only so far as it will build, not pull down. In 
dealing with the tariff the method by which this may be 
done will be a matter of judgment exercised item by item. 
To some not accustomed to the excitement and responsi- 
bilities of greater freedom our methods may in some re- 
spects and at some points seem heroic, but remedies may 
be heroic and yet be remedies. It is our business to make 
sure that they are genuine remedies. Our object is clear. 
If our motive is above just challenge and only an occa- 
sional error of judgment is chargeable against us, we shall 
be fortunate. 

"We are called upon to render the country a great 



WOODROW WILSON 87 

service in more matters than one. Our responsibility 
should be met and our methods should be thorough, as 
thorough as moderate and well considered, based upon the 
facts as they are, and not worked out as if we were begin- 
ners. We are to deal with the facts of our own day, with 
the facts of no other, and to make laws which square with 
those facts. It is best, indeed it is necessary, to begin 
with the tariff. I will urge nothing upon you now at the 
opening of your session which can obscure that first object 
or divert our energies from that clearly defined duty. At 
a later time I may take the liberty of calling your atten- 
tion to reforms which should press close upon the heels of 
the tariff changes, if not accompany them, of which the 
chief is the reform of our banking and currency laws ; but 
just now I refrain. For the present, I put these matters 
on one side and think only of this one thing — of the 
changes in our fiscal system which may best serve to open 
once more the free channels of prosperity to a great people 
whom we would serve to the utmost and throughout both 
rank and file. ' ' 

When the President finished the applause that broke 
out through the entire house bore testimony to the spirit 
in which the message had been received. 

The Congress was given its task and went to work at 
once. The measure providing for revision of the tariff 
had been drawn up by Senator Underwood between the 
inauguration and the first session of congress so that 
it was in form to present to the senate on the same day. 
Its main, features were the famous Schedule K of the 
tariff and the Income Tax regulations under the sixteenth 
amendment to the constitution. Other presidents had 
urged this latter piece of legislation in vain. Congress 
had repeatedly failed to pass it. 

It suffices to say here that the measure was made law, 
with some minor changes, and President Wilson signed 
it the following October. 

There were many outside influences, however, that 



88 WOODROW WILSON 

attempted to obstruct the bill through a lobby created 
for the purpose. It was the work of other political bosses 
who failed to take warning by the fate of those who 
attempted to influence Woodrow Wilson when he was 
governor of New Jersey. Prominent Democrats were 
mixed up in the plot and they led the president to declare 
that he was the servant of the American people, not of 
the Democratic party. 

The situation steadily grew worse with attacks on the 
Underwood measure becoming more frequent and bold, 
until on May 26th, President Wilson issued a denuncia- 
tion of the lobby. He said : 

"I think that the public ought to know the extraor- 
dinary exertions being made by the lobby in Washington 
to gain recognition for certain alterations of the Tariff 
bill. Washington has seldom seen so numerous, so indus- 
trious or so insidious a lobby. The newspapers are being 
filled with paid advertisements calculated to mislead the 
judgment of public men not only, but also the public 
opinion of the country itself. There is every evidence 
that money without limit is being spent to sustain this 
lobby and to create an appearance of a pressure of 
opinion antagonistic to some of the chief items of the 
Tariff bill. 

' 'It is of serious interest to the country that the people 
at large should have no lobby and be voiceless in these 
matters, while great bodies of astute men seek to create 
an artificial opinion and to overcome the interests of the 
public for their private profit. It is thoroughly worth 
the while of the people of this country to take knowl- 
edge of this matter. Only public opinion can check and 
destroy it. 

"The Government in all its branches ought to be 
relieved from this intolerable burden and this constant 
interruption to the calm progress of debate. I know 
that in this I am speaking for the members of the two 



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Wilson receiving the notification of his renomination by the 
Democratic party from Senator Ollie James. 






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WOODROW WILSON 93 

houses, who would rejoice as much as I would to be 
released from this unbearable situation." 

The delay on the Underwood bill continued into June 
and the lobbyists, who were driven under cover to a great 
extent, were confident that it still could be delayed until 
it died a natural death. The members of Congress were 
looking forward to a hot summer season passed at the 
seashore, but their hopes were short lived. 

On June 23rd, the President announced that he could 
be expected at a joint session of the House and Senate, 
much to the disgust of some of the members. He had 
intimated that sweeping reforms were desired in the 
financial system, but few were prepared for the plan he 
outlined. In his address to the joint session, he said : 

1 ' Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, gentlemen of the Con- 
gress, it is under the compulsion of what seems to me a 
clear and imperative duty that I have a second time this 
session sought the privilege of addressing you in person. 
I know, of course, that the heated season of the year is 
upon us, that work in these Chambers and in the com- 
mittee rooms is likely to become a burden as the season 
lengthens, and that every consideration of personal con- 
venience and personal comfort, perhaps, in the cases of 
some of us, considerations of personal health even, dic- 
tate an early conclusion of the deliberations of the session ; 
but there are occasions of public duty when these things 
which touch us privately seem very small; when the 
work to be done is so pressing and so fraught with big 
consequence that we know that we are not at liberty to 
weigh against it any point of personal sacrifice. We are 
now in the presence of such an occasion. It is absolutely 
imperative that we should give the business men of this 
country a banking and currency system by means of which 
they can make use of the freedom of enterprise and of 
individual initiative which we are about to bestow upon 
them. 

"We are about to set them free; we must not leave 



94 WOODROW WILSON 

them without the tools, of action when they are free. We 
are about to set them free by removing the trammels of 
the protective tariff. Ever since the Civil War they have 
waited for this emancipation and for the free opportu- 
nities it will bring with it. It has been reserved for us 
to give it to them. Some fell in love, indeed, with the 
slothful security of their dependence upon the Govern- 
ment ; some took advantage of the shelter of the nursery 
to set up a mimic mastery of their own within its walls. 
Now both the tonic and the discipline of liberty and 
maturity are to ensue. There will be some readjustments 
of purpose and point of view. There will follow a period 
of expansion and new enterprise, freshly conceived. It 
is for us to determine now whether it shall be rapid and 
facile and of easy accomplishment. This it can not be 
unless the resourceful business men who are to deal with 
the new circumstances are to have at hand and ready for 
use the instrumentalities and conveniences of free enter- 
prise which independent men need when acting on their 
own initiative. 

"It is not enough to strike the shackles from business. 
The duty of statesmanship is not negative merely. It is 
constructive also. We must show that we understand 
what business needs and that we know how to supply it. 
No man, however casual and superficial his observation 
of the conditions now prevailing in the country, can fail 
to see that one of the chief things business needs now, and 
will need increasingly as it gains in scope and vigor in 
the years immediately ahead of us, is the proper means 
by which readily to vitalize its credit, corporate and indi- 
vidual, and its originative brains. What will it profit us 
to be free if we are not to have the best and most accessible 
instrumentalities of commerce and enterprise? What 
will it profit us to be quit of one kind of monopoly if we 
are to remain in the grip of another and more effective 
kind? How are we to gain and keep the confidence of 
the business community unless we show that we know 



WOODROW WILSON 95 

how both to aid and to protect it? What shall we say if 
we make fresh enterprise necessary and also make it 
very difficult by leaving all else except the tariff just as 
we found it? The tyrannies of business, big and little, lie 
within the field of credit. We know that. Shall we not 
act upon the knowledge? Do we not know how to act 
upon it? If a man can not make his assets available at 
pleasure, his assets of capacity and character and 
resource, what satisfaction is it to him to see opportunity 
beckoning to him on every hand when others have the 
keys of credit in their pockets and treat them as all but 
their own private possession? It is perfectly clear that 
it is our duty to supply the new banking and currency 
system the country needs, and it will need it immediately 
more than it has ever needed it before. 

' ' The only question is, When shall we supply it — now 
or later, after the demands shall have become reproaches 
that we are so dull and so slow? Shall we hasten to 
change the tariff laws and then be laggards about mak- 
ing it possible and easy for the country to take advantage 
of the change? There can be only one answer to that 
question. We must act now, at whatever sacrifice to 
ourselves. It is a duty which the circumstances forbid us 
to postpone. I should be recreant to my deepest convic- 
tions of public obligation did I not press it upon you with 
solemn and urgent insistence. 

"The principles upon which we should act are also 
clear. The country has sought and seen its path in this 
matter within the last few years — sees it more clearly 
now than it ever saw it before — much more clearly than 
when the last legislative proposals on the subject were 
made. We must have a currency, not rigid as now, but 
readily, elastically responsive to sound credit, the expand- 
ing and contracting credits of everyday transactions, the 
normal ebb and flow of personal and corporate dealings. 
Our banking laws must mobilize reserves ; must not per- 
mit the concentration anywhere in a few hands of the 



96 WOODROW WILSON 

monetary resources of the country or their use for spec- 
ulative purposes in such volume as to hinder or impede 
or stand in the way of other more legitimate, more fruit- 
ful uses. And the control of the system of banking and 
of issue which our new laws are to set up must be public, 
not private, must be vested in the Government itself, so 
that the banks may be the instruments, not the masters, 
of business and of individual enterprise and initiative. 

"The committees of the Congress to which legislation 
of this character is referred have devoted careful and 
dispassionate study to the means of accomplishing these 
objects. They have honored me by consulting me. They 
are ready to suggest action. I have come to you, as the 
head of the Government and the responsible leader of the 
party in power, to urge action now, while there is time 
to serve the country deliberately, and as we should, in a 
clear air of common counsel. I appeal to you with a deep 
conviction of duty. I believe that you share this con- 
viction. I therefore appeal to you with confidence. I am 
at your service without reserve to play my part in any 
way you may call upon me to play it in this great enter- 
prise of exigent reform which it will dignify and dis- 
tinguish us to perform and discredit us to neglect. ' ' 

The Congress accepted the message and the request 
in the new spirit of patriotism that was sweeping the 
country. It was a direct challenge to the people's rep- 
resentatives to consider the country's needs or their own 
by leaving the session for a vacation. 

President Wilson was establishing a precedent. It 
had been the custom in other years for the chief execu- 
tive to write out a long, sonorous message that went into 
minute details of the desired legislation. President Wil- 
son operated the other way. He first had the proposed 
bills drawn up and presented to the people through the 
newspapers. He studied editorial comments and letters 
from citizens and on these he based his final opinions. 
The result was that when he went before the legislators 



WOODROW WILSON 97 

he confined his remarks to a general synopsis of the 
question and indirectly brought to their attention that 
the American people were watching the proceedings care- 
fully. 

The financial reform measure was designed to meet 
the needs of business throughout the country and place 
the foundation of the country's assets on business rather 
than on Government bonds. The establishment of Fed- 
eral Reserve Banks through which currency could be 
diverted to any corner of the country was one of the 
most important features. (The manner in which the plan 
worked several years later when the country was forced 
to raise billions for the national defense is testimony of 
its feasibility.) Conferences were held by bankers all 
over the country and reports were made direct to the 
President. On December 23rd, 1913, the measure went to 
the President for his signature and was hailed by the 
country as a welcome Christmas gift. 

President Wilson's book, "The New Freedom," ap- 
peared in February, 1913, with the first message ever 
delivered to the American people by a President-elect on 
the eve of his inauguration. It is an avowal of faith and 
a declaration of intention on the part of the man, who, 
in sixteen days, was to be the first Democratic chief 
executive the country had in sixteen years. 

One of the most interesting chapters dealt with the 
program of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his pro- 
gressive followers. President Wilson analyzed it care- 
fully and concluded the basis of the Roosevelt plan was 
the recognition and legislation of the monopoly which 
he proposed to convey into benevolence and philanthropy. 
He declared that "you cannot use monopoly in order to 
serve a free people," and warned Progressive Republi- 
cans they were being deluded. 

"The New Freedom" was dedicated to every man or 
woman who might derive from it in a small degree the 
impulse of unselfish public services. 



98 WOODROW WILSON 

He pointed out that the corporations which formerly 
played a small part in business affairs "now played the 
chief part, ' ' and said that most of our laws were formed 
in the age when employer and employe knew each other, 
knew each others' characters, were associated with each 
other, dealt with each other as man to man, which was no 
longer the case. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE MEXICAN QUESTION. 

For two years prior to President Wilson's election revo- 
lution had reigned supreme in Mexico. President Taft 
had maintained an attitude of utter unconcern in the mat- 
ter on the theory that the Mexican people could work out 
their salvation without outside interference. President 
Wilson inclined to the same views, but it seemed as though 
his entire public career was to be marked by international 
differences. 

Until 1910, Porfirio Diaz had been President of Mexico. 
His rule was one of dictatorship, for he frowned on active 
campaigns for the presidency. When, in 1910, Francisco 
Madero, leader of a great reform movement, steadily 
gained in favor with the people and threatened to succeed 
Diaz, he was thrown into prison and the match was applied 
to the revolutionary torch. Diaz was forced to flee to 
Europe, Madero was released from prison and made 
President, and it seemed as though enlightenment and 
progress was to come to Mexico. 

The new administration was short. A nephew of the 
deposed President was captured while fomenting a new 
rebellion. Later he escaped and formed a new army. 
Meanwhile, General Victoriano Huerta, a Madero ad- 
herent, deserted the government, caused the arrest of 
President Madero and his assassination a few days later. 
Then he assumed the presidency and gave the signal for a 
reign of terror. It was at its height when President Wil- 
son was inaugurated. 

American life and capital in Mexico were in danger. 
American citizens were being murdered in a most wanton 
fashion. Many were executed by Huerta soldiers without 

99 



100 WOODROW WILSON 

trial, and the eyes of the world were turned to President 
Wilson as the champion of the Monroe Doctrine. 

A few months after he assumed office he sent John Lind, 
former governor of Minnesota, to Mexico as a special en- 
voy. These were his instructions to Mr. Lind : 

" Press very earnestly upon the attention of those who 
are now exercising authority or wielding influence in 
Mexico the following considerations and advice : 

"The Government of the United States does not feel at 
liberty any longer to stand inactively by while it becomes 
daily more and more evident that no real progress is being 
made towards the establishment of a government at the 
City of Mexico which the country will obey and respect. 

"The Government of the United States does not stand 
in the same case with the other great Governments of the 
world in respect of what is happening or what is likely to 
happen in Mexico. We offer our good offices, not only 
because of our genuine desire to play the part of a friend, 
but also because we are expected by the powers of the 
world to act as Mexico's nearest friend. 

"We wish to act in these circumstances in the spirit of 
the most earnest and disinterested friendship. It is our 
purpose in whatever we do or propose in this perplexing 
and distressing situation not only to pay the most scrupu- 
lous regard to the sovereignty and independence of Mexico 
— that we take as a matter of course to which we are bound 
by every obligation of right and honor — but also to give 
every possible evidence that we act in the interest of 
Mexico alone, and not in the interest of any person or body 
of persons who may have personal or property claims in 
Mexico which they may feel that they have the right to 
press. We are seeking to counsel Mexico for her own 
good, and in the interest of her own peace, and not for any 
other purpose whatever. The Government of the United 
States would deem itself discredited if it had any selfish 
or ulterior purpose in transactions where the peace, hap- 
piness, and prosperity of a whole people are involved. It 



WOODROW WILSON 101 

is acting as its friendship for Mexico, not as any selfish 
interest, dictates. 

"The present situation in Mexico is incompatible with 
the fulfillment of international obligations on the part of 
Mexico, with the civilized development of Mexico herself, 
and with the maintenance of tolerable political and 
economic conditions in Central Am erica. It is upon no 
common occasion, therefore, that the United States offers 
her counsel and assistance. All Am erica cries out for a 
settlement. 

"A satisfactory settlement seems to us to be condi- 
tioned on — 

"(a) An immediate cessation of fighting throughout 
Mexico, a definite armistice solemnly entered into and 
scrupulously observed; 

11 (b) Security given for an early and free election in 
which all will agree to take part ; 

"(c) The consent of Gen. Huerta to bind himself not 
to be a candidate for election as President of the Repub- 
lic at this election ; and 

"(d) The agreement of all parties to abide by the re- 
sults of the election and co-operate in the most loyal way 
in organizing and supporting the new administration. 

1 ' The Government of the United States will be glad to 
play any part in this settlement or in its carrying out 
which it can play honorably and consistently with interna- 
tional right. It pledges itself to recognize and in every 
way possible and proper to assist the administration 
chosen and set up in Mexico in the way and on the con- 
ditions suggested. 

1 ' Taking all the existing conditions into consideration, 
the Government of the United States can conceive of no 
reasons sufficient to justify those who are now attempting 
to shape the policy or exercise the authority of Mexico in 
declining the offices of friendship thus offered. Can 
Mexico give the civilized world a satisfactory reason for 
rejecting our good offices? If Mexico can suggest any 



102 WOODROW WILSON 

better way in which to show our friendship, serve the 
people of Mexico, and meet our international obligations, 
we are more than willing to consider the suggestion. ' ' 

Mr. Lind proceeded on his difficult mission and finally 
reached Mexico City after several narrow escapes from 
the bandits who infested the country. He presented his 
credentials to the so-called Huerta government. The reply 
was most insolent. It read : 

' ' The imputation that no progress has been made toward 
establishing a Government that may enjoy the obedience 
of the Mexican people is unfounded. In contradiction with 
their gross imputation, which is not supported by any 
proofs, principally because there are none, it affords me 
pleasure to refer, Mr. Confidential Agent, to the following 
facts which abound in evidence and which to a certain 
extent must be known to you by direct observation. The 
Mexican Republic, Mr. Confidential Agent, is formed by 
27 States, 3 Territories, and 1 Federal District, in which 
the supreme power of the Republic has its seat. Of these 
27 States, 18 of them, the 3 Territories, and the Federal 
District (making a total of 22 political entities) are under 
the absolute control of the present Government, which 
aside from the above, exercises its authority over almost 
every port in the Eepublic and, consequently, over the 
custom houses therein established. Its southern frontier 
is open and at peace. Moreover, my Government has an 
army of 80,000 men in the field, with no other purpose than 
to insure complete peace in the Republic, the only national 
aspiration and solemn promise of the present provisional 
President. . . . 

"Inasmuch as the Government of the United States is 
willing to act in the most disinterested friendship, it will 
be difficult for it to find a more propitious opportunity 
than the following : If it should only watch that no ma- 
terial and monetary assistance is given to rebels who find 
refuge, conspire, and provide themselves with arms and 
food on the other side of the border -, if it should demand 



WOODROW WILSON 103 

from its minor and local authorities the strictest observ- 
ance of the neutrality laws, I assure you, Mr. Confidential 
Agent, that the complete pacification of this Republic 
would be accomplished within a relatively short time. . . . 
' ' His Excellency Mr. Wilson is laboring under a serious 
delusion when he declares that the present situation of 
Mexico is incompatible with the compliance of her inter- 
national obligations and with the required maintenance of 
conditions tolerable in Central America. No charge has 
been made by any foreign Government accusing us of the 
above lack of compliance, we are punctually meeting all of 
our credits, we are still maintaining diplomatic missions 
cordially accepted in almost all the countries of the world. 
With regard to our interior development, a contract has 
just been signed with Belgian capitalists which means to 
Mexico the construction of something like 5,000 kilometers 
of railway. In conclusion, we fail to see the evil results, 
which are prejudicial only to ourselves, felt in Central 
America by our present domestic war. . . . With refer- 
ence to the rebels who style themselves " Constitutional- 
ists," one of the representatives of whom has been given 
an ear by Members of the United States Senate, what 
could there be more gratifying to us than if, convinced of 
the precipice to which we are being dragged by the resent- 
ment of their defeat, in a moment of reaction they would 
depose their rancor and add their strength to ours so that 
all together we would undertake the great and urgent task 
of national reconstruction? Unforunately they do not 
avail themselves of the amnesty law enacted by the pro- 
visional government. . . . 

"The request that General Victoriano Huerta should 
agree not to appear as a candidate for the Presidency of the 
Republic in the coming election cannot be taken into con- 
sideration, because, aside from its strange and unwar- 
ranted character, there is a risk that the same might be 
interpreted as a matter of personal dislike. . . . The 
legality of the government of General Huerta cannot be 



104 WOODROW WILSON 

disputed. Article 85 of our political constitution provides : 
"If at the beginning of a constitutional term neither 
the President nor the Vice-President elected present them- 
selves, the President whose term has expired will cease 
in his functions, and the secretary for foreign affairs shall 
immediately take charge of the Executive power in the 
capacity of provisional President ; and if there should be 
no secretary for foreign affairs, the Presidency shall 
devolve on one of the other secretaries pursuant to the 
order provided by the law. 

Now, then, the facts which occurred are the f ollowing : 
The resignation of Francisco I. Madero, constitutional 
President, and Jose Maria Pino Suarez, constitutional 
Vice-President of the Eepublic. These resignations hav- 
ing been accepted, Pedro Lascurain, Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, took charge by law of the vacant executive power, 
appointing, as he had the power to do, Gen. Victoriano 
Huerta to the post of Minister of the Interior. As Mr. 
Lascurain soon afterwards resigned, and as his resigna- 
tion was immediately accepted by Congress, Gen. Vic- 
toriano Huerta took charge of the executive power, also by 
operation of law, with the provisional character and under 
the constitutional promise already complied with to issue a 
call for special elections. As will be seen, the point of issue 
is exclusively one of constitutional law in which no foreign 
nation, no matter how powerful and respectable it may be, 
should mediate in the least. . . . 

"With reference to the final part of the instructions 
of President Wilson, which I beg to include herewith and 
say, 'If Mexico can suggest any better way in which to 
show our friendship, serve the people of Mexico, and meet 
our international obligations, we are more than willing to 
consider the suggestion,' that final part causes me to pro- 
pose the following equally decorous arrangement: One, 
that our ambassador be received in Washington; two, that 
the United States of America send us a new ambassador 
without previous conditions. 



WOODROW WILSON 105 

"And all this threatening and distressing situation 
will have reached a happy conclusion ; mention will not be 
made of the causes which might carry us, if the tension 
persists, to no one knows what incalculable extremities 
for two peoples who have the unavoidable obligation to 
continue being friends, provided, of course, that this 
friendship is based upon mutual respect, which is indis- 
pensable between two sovereign entities wholly equal 
before law and justice. ' ' 

With this indefinite reply, Mr. Lind was forced to 
journey back again to the United States. He presented 
the answer to President Wilson and the executive ap- 
peared before Congress on August 27, 1913, and spoke as 
follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress : It is clearly my duty to 
lay before you, very fully and without reservation, the 
facts concerning our present relations with the Republic 
of Mexico. The deplorable posture of affairs in Mexico I 
need not describe, but I deem it my duty to speak very 
frankly of what this Government has done and should 
seek to do in fulfillment of its obligation to Mexico herself, 
as a friend and neighbor, and to American citizens whose 
lives and vital interests are daily affected by the distress- 
ing conditions which now obtain beyond our southern 
border. 

' ' Those conditions touch us very nearly. Not merely 
because they lie at our very doors. That, of course, makes 
us more vividly and more constantly conscious of them, 
and every instinct of neighborly interest and sympathy is 
aroused and quickened by them ; but that is only one ele- 
ment in the determination of our duty. We are glad to call 
ourselves the friend of Mexico, and we shall, I hope, have 
many an occasion, in happier times as well as in these 
days of trouble and confusion, to show that our friendship 
is genuine and disinterested, capable of sacrifice and every 
generous manifestation. The peace, prosperity, and con- 



106 WOODROW WILSON 

tentment of Mexico mean more, much more, to us than 
merely an enlarged field for our commerce and enterprise. 
They mean an enlargement of the field of self-government 
and the realization of the hopes and rights of a nation with 
whose best aspirations, so long suppressed and disap- 
pointed, we deeply sympathize. We shall yet prove to the 
Mexican people that we know how to serve them without 
first thinking how we shall serve ourselves. 

"But we are not the only friends of Mexico. The 
whole world desires her peace and progress; and the 
whole world is interested as never before. Mexico lies at 
last where all the world looks on. Central America is 
about to be touched by the great routes of the world's 
trade and intercourse running free from ocean to ocean at 
the Isthmus. The future has much in store for Mexico, as 
for all the States of Central America ; but the best gifts 
can come to her only if she be ready and free to receive 
them and to enjoy them honorably. America in particular 
— America north and south and upon both continents — 
waits upon the development of Mexico ; and that develop- 
ment can be sound and lasting only if it be the product of a 
genuine freedom, a just and ordered government founded 
upon law. Only so can it be peaceful or fruitful of the 
benefits of peace. Mexico has a great and enviable future 
before her, if only she choose and attain the paths of hon- 
est constitutional government. 

' ' The present circumstances of the Republic, I deeply 
regret to say, do not seem to promise even the foundations 
of such a peace. We have waited many months, months 
full of peril and anxiety, for the conditions there to im- 
prove, and they have not improved. They have grown 
worse, rather. The territory in some sort controlled by 
the provisional authorities at Mexico City has grown 
smaller, not larger. The prospect of the pacification of 
the country, even by arms, has seemed to grow more and 
more remote ; and its pacification by the authorities at the 
capital is evidently impossible by any other means than 



WOODROW WILSON 107 

force. Difficulties more and more entangle those who 
claim to constitute the legitimate government of the Re- 
public. They have not made good their claim in fact. 
Their successes in the field have proved only temporary. 
War and disorder, devastation and confusion, seem to 
threaten to become the settled fortune of the distracted 
country. As friends we could wait no longer for a solu- 
tion which every week seemed further away. It was our 
duty at least to volunteer our good offices — to offer to 
assist, if we might, in effecting some arrangement which 
would bring relief and peace and set up a universally 
acknowledged political authority there. 

1 ' Mr. Lind executed his delicate and difficult mission 
with singular tact, firmness, and good judgment, and made 
clear to the authorities at the City of Mexico not only the 
purpose of his visit but also the spirit in which it had been 
undertaken. But the proposals he submitted were re- 
jected. 

"I am led to believe that they were rejected partly 
because the authorities at Mexico City had been grossly 
misinformed and misled upon two points. They did not 
realize the spirit of the American people in this matter, 
their earnest friendliness and yet sober determination 
that some just solution be found for the Mexican difficul- 
ties ; and they did not believe that the present administra- 
tion spoke through Mr. Lind, for the people of the United 
States. The effect of this unfortunate misunderstanding 
on their part is to leave them singularly isolated and with- 
out friends who can effectually aid them. So long as the 
misunderstanding continues we can only await the time of 
their awakening to a realization of the actual facts. We 
can not thrust our good offices upon them. The situation 
must be given a little more time to work itself out in the 
new circumstances ; and I believe that only a little while 
will be necessary. For the circumstances are new. The 
rejection of our friendship makes them new and will 
inevitably bring its own alterations in the whole aspect of 



108 WOODROW WILSON 

affairs. The actual situation of the authorities at Mexico 
City will presently be revealed. 

"Meanwhile, what is it our duty to do? Clearly, 
everything that we do must be rooted in patience and done 
with calm and disinterested deliberation. Impatience on 
our part would be childish, and would be fraught with 
every risk of wrong and folly. We can afford to exercise 
the self-restraint of a really great nation which realizes its 
own strength and scorns to misuse it. It was our duty to 
offer our active assistance. It is now our duty to show 
what true neutrality will do to enable the people of Mexico 
to set their affairs in order again and wait for a further 
opportunity to offer our friendly counsels. The door is 
not closed against the resumption, either upon the initia- 
tive of Mexico or upon our own, of the effort to bring order 
out of the confusion by friendly co-operative action, should 
fortunate occasion offer. 

"While we wait, the contest of the rival forces will 
undoubtedly for a little while be sharper than ever, just 
because it will be plain that an end must be made of the 
existing situation, and that very promptly; and with the 
increased activity of the contending factions will come, it 
is to be feared, increased danger to the noncombatants in 
Mexico as well as to those actually in the field of battle. 
The position of outsiders is always particularly trying and 
full of hazard where there is civil strife and a whole coun- 
try is upset. We should earnestly urge all Americans to 
leave Mexico at once, and should assist them to get away 
in every way possible — not because we would mean to 
slacken in the least our efforts to safeguard their lives and 
their interests, but because it is imperative that they 
should take no unnecessary risks when it is physically pos- 
sible for them to leave the country. We should let every 
one who assumes to exercise authority in any part of 
Mexico know in the most unequivocal way that we shall 
vigilantly watch the fortunes of those Americans who can 
not get away, and shall hold those responsible for thejr 




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THE PRESIDENT AND HIS GRANDCHILD„ 



WOODROW WILSON 113 

sufferings and losses to a definite reckoning. That can be 
and will be made plain beyond the possibility of a mis- 
understanding. 

"For the rest, I deem it my duty to exercise the 
authority conferred upon me by the law of March 14, 1912, 
to see to it that neither side to the struggle now going on 
in Mexico receive any assistance from this side the border. 
I shall follow the best practice of nations in the matter 
of neutrality by forbidding the exportation of arms or 
munitions of war of any kind from the United States to 
any part of the Republic of Mexico — a policy suggested by 
several interesting precedents and certainly dictated by 
many manifest considerations of practical expediency. 
We can not in the circumstances be the partisans of either 
party to the contest that now distracts Mexico, or con- 
stitute ourselves the virtual umpire between them. 

"I am happy to say that several of the great Govern- 
ments of the world have given this Government their gen- 
erous moral support in urging upon the provisional 
authorities at the City of Mexico the acceptance of our 
proffered good offices in the spirit in which they were made. 
We have not acted in this matter under the ordinary prin- 
ciples of international obligation. All the world expects 
us in such circumstances to act as Mexico 's nearest friend 
and intimate adviser. This is our immemorial relation 
towards her. There is nowhere any serious question that 
we have the moral right in the case or that we are acting in 
the interest of a fair settlement and of good government, 
not for the promotion of some selfish interest of our own. 
If further motive were necessary than our own good will 
towards a sister Republic and our own deep concern to see 
peace and order prevail in Central America, this consent 
of mankind to what we are attempting, this attitude of the 
great nations of the world towards what we may attempt 
in dealing wih this distressed people at our doors, should 
make us Jfeel the more solemnly bound to go to the utmost 
length of patience and forbearance in this painful ami 



114 WOODROW WILSON 

anxious business. The steady pressure of moral force will 
before many days break the barriers of pride and 
prejudice down, and we shall triumph as Mexico 's friends 
sooner than we could triumph as her enemies — and how 
much more handsomely, with how much higher and finer 
satisfaction of conscience and of honor ! ' ' 

The message met with general satisfaction with the 
conservative element, but the Jingoists who were clamor- 
ing for war with Mexico were openly disappointed. They 
declared that Mexico had insulted the United States with 
far more temerity than she would have displayed to any 
other big power. Notwithstanding their comments, the 
president remained firm and insisted his was the right 
policy. He reiterated again and again his policy of 
1 * watchful waiting. ' ' 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE. 

On December 2, 1913, the first presidential message 
was read to Congress by President Wilson. It was a mas- 
terpiece of oratory and swept his hearers off their feet. 
It follows: 
"Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Congress : 

"In pursuance of my constitutional duty to 'give to 
the Congress information of the state of the Union,' I take 
the liberty of addressing you on several matters which 
ought, as it seems to me, particularly to engage the atten- 
tion of your honorable bodies, as of all who study the wel- 
fare and progress of the Nation. 

' ' I shall ask your indulgence if I venture to depart in 
some degree from the usual custom of setting before you 
in formal review the many matters which have engaged 
the attention and called for the action of the several de- 
partments of the Government or which look to them for 
early treatment in the future, because the list is long, very 
long, and would suffer in the abbreviation to which I 
should have to subject it. I shall submit to you the reports 
of the heads of the several departments, in which these 
subjects are set forth in careful detail, and beg that they 
may receive the thoughtful attention of your committees 
and of all Members of the Congress who may have the 
leisure to study them. Their obvious importance, as con- 
stituting the very substance of the business of the Govern- 
ment, makes comment and emphasis on my part unneces- 
sary. 

' ' The country, I am thankful to say, is at peace with 
all the world, and many happy manifestations multiply 
about us of a growing cordiality and sense of community 

115 



116 WOODROW WILSON 

of interest among the nations, foreshadowing an age of 
settled peace and good will. More and more readily each 
decade do the nations manifest their willingness to bind 
themselves by solemn treaty to the processes of peace, the 
processes of frankness and fair concession. So far the 
United States has stood at the front of such negotiations. 
She will, I earnestly hope and confidently believe, give 
fresh proof of her sincere adherence to the cause of inter- 
national friendship by ratifying the several treaties of 
arbitration awaiting renewal by the Senate. In addition 
to these, it h&s been the privilege of the Department of 
State to gain the assent, in principle, of no less than 31 
nations, representing four-fifths of the population of the 
world, to the negotiation of treaties by which it shall be 
agreed that whenever differences of interest or of policy 
arise which can not be resolved by the ordinary processes 
of diplomacy they shall be publicly analyzed, discussed, 
and reported upon by a tribunal chosen by the parties 
before either nation determines its course of action. 

1 1 There is only one possible standard by which to de- 
termine controversies between the United States and 
other nations, and that is compounded of these two ele- 
ments : Our own honor and our obligations to the peace of 
the world. A test so compounded ought easily to be made 
to govern both the establishment of new treaty obligations 
and the interpretation of those already assumed. 

' 'There is but one cloud upon our horizon. That has 
shown itself to the south of us, and hangs over Mexico. 
There can be no certain prospect of peace in America until 
General Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority in 
Mexico; until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that 
such pretended governments will not be countenaced or 
dealt with by the Government of the United States. We 
are the friends of constitutional government in America; 
we are more than its friends, we are its champions ; be- 
cause in no other way can our neighbors, to whom we 
would wish in every way to make proof of our friendship, 



WOODROW WILSON 117 

work out their own development in peace and liberty. 
Mexico has no Government. The attempt to maintain one 
at the City of Mexico has broken down, and a mere mili- 
tary despotism has been set up which has hardly more 
than the semblance of national authority. It originated in 
the usurpation of Victoriano Huerta, who, after a brief 
attempt to play the part of constitutional President, has at 
last cast aside even the pretense of legal right and de- 
clared himself dictator. As a consequence, a condition of 
affairs now exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful 
whether even the most elementary and fundamental rights 
either of her own people or of the citizens of other coun- 
tries resident within her territory can long be successfully 
safeguarded, and which threatens, if long continued, to 
imperil the interests of peace, order, and tolerable life in 
the lands immediately to the south of us. Even if the 
usurper had succeeded in his purposes, in despite of the 
constitution of the Republic and the rights of its people, 
he would have set up nothing but a precarious and hateful 
power, which could have lasted but a little while, and 
whose eventful downfall would have left the country in a 
more deplorable condition than ever. But he has not suc- 
ceeded. He has forfeited the respect and the moral sup- 
port even of those who were at one time willing to see him 
succeed. Little by little he has been completely isolated. 
By a little every day his power and prestige are crumbling 
and the collapse is not far away. We shall not, I believe, 
be obliged to alter our policy of watchful waiting. And 
then, when the end comes, we shall hope to see constitu- 
tional order restored in distressed Mexico by the concert 
and energy of such of her leaders as prefer the liberty of 
their people to their own ambitions. 

1 'I turn to matters of domestic concern. You already 
have under consideration a bill for the reform of our sys- 
tem of banking and currency, for which the country waits 
with impatience, as for something fundamental to its 
whole business life and necessary to set credit free from 



118 WOODROW WILSON 

arbitrary and artificial restraints. I need not say how 
earnestly I hope for its early enactment into law. I take 
leave to beg that the whole energy and attention of the 
Senate be concentrated upon it till the matter is success- 
fully disposed of. And yet I feel that the request is not 
needed — that the Members of that great House need no 
urging in this service to the country. 

"I present to you, in addition, the urgent necessity 
that special provision be made also for facilitating the 
credits needed by the farmers of the country. The pend- 
ing currency bill does the farmers a great service. It puts 
them upon an equal footing with other business men and 
masters of enterprise, as it should ; and upon its passage 
they will find themselves quit of many of the difficulties 
which now hamper them in the field of credit. The farm- 
ers, of course, ask and should be given no special privilege, 
such as extending to them the credit of the Government 
itself. What they need and should obtain is legislation 
which will make their own abundant and substantial credit 
resources available as a foundation for joint, concerted 
local action in their own behalf in getting the capital they 
must use. It is to this we should now address ourselves. 

' ' It has, singularly enough, come to pass that we have 
allowed the industry of our farms to lag behind the other 
activities of the country in its development. I need not 
stop to tell you how fundamental to the life of the Nation 
is the production of its food. Our thoughts may ordinarily 
be concentrated upon the cities and the hives of industry, 
upon the cries of the crowded market place and the 
clangor of the factory, but it is from the quiet interspaces 
of the open valleys and the free hillsides that we draw the 
sources of life and of prosperity, from the farm and the 
ranch, from the forest and the mine. Without these every 
street would be silent, every office deserted, every factory 
fallen into disrepair. And yet the farmer does not stand 
upon the same footing with the forester and the miner in 
the market of credit. He is the servant of the seasons. 






WOODROW WILSON 119 

Nature determines how long he must wait for his crops, 
and will not be hurried in her processes. He may give his 
note, but the season of its maturity depends upon the sea- 
son when his crop matures, lies at the gates of the market 
where his products are sold. And the security he gives is 
of a character not known in the broker's office or as 
familiarly as it might be on the counter of the banker. 

' ' The Agricultural Department of the Government is 
seeking to assist as never before to make farming an effi- 
cient business, of wide co-operative effort, in quick touch 
with the markets for foodstuffs. The farmers and the 
Government will henceforth work together as real part- 
ners in this field, where we now begin to see our way very 
clearly and where many intelligent plans are already 
being put into execution. The Treasury of the United 
States has, by a timely and well-considered distribution 
of its deposits, facilitated the moving of the crops in the 
present season and prevented the scarcity of available 
funds too often experienced at such times. But we must 
not allow ourselves to depend upon extraordinary ex- 
pedients. We must add the means by which the farmer 
may make his credit constantly and easily available and 
command when he will the capital by which to support 
and expand his business. We lag behind many other great 
countries of the modern world in attempting to do this. 
Systems of rural credit have been studied and developed 
on the other side of the water while we left our farmers to 
shift for themselves in the ordinary money market. You 
have but to look about you in any rural district to see the 
result, the handicap and embarrassment which have been 
put upon those who produce our food. 

"Conscious of this backwardness and neglect on our 
part, the Congress recently authorized the creation of a 
special commission to study the various systems of rural 
credit which have been put into operation in Europe, and 
this commission is already prepared to report. Its report 
ought to make it easier for us to determine what methods 



120 WOODROW WILSON 

will be best suited to our own farmers. I hope and believe 
that the committees of the Senate and House will address 
themselves to this matter with the most fruitful results, 
and I believe that the studies and recently formed plans of 
the Department of Agriculture may be made to serve 
them very greatly in their work of framing appropriate 
and adequate legislation. It would be indiscreet and pre- 
sumptuous in anyone to dogmatize upon so great and 
many-sided a question, but I feel confident that common 
counsel will produce the results we must all desire. 

' 'Turn from the farm to the world of business which 
centers in the city and in the factory, and I think that all 
thoughtful observers will agree that the immediate service 
we owe the business communities of the country is to pre- 
vent private monopoly more effectually than it has yet 
been prevented. I think it will be easily agreed that we 
should let the Sherman antitrust law stand, unaltered, as 
it is, with its debatable ground about it, but that we should 
as much as possible reduce the area of that debatable 
ground by further and more explicit legislation; and 
should also supplement that great act by legislation which 
will not only clarify it but also facilitate its administration 
and make it fairer to all concerned. No doubt we shall all 
wish, and the country will expect, this to be the central 
subject of our deliberations during the present session; 
but it is a subject so many-sided and so deserving of care- 
ful and discriminating discussion that I shall take the 
liberty of addressing you upon it in a special message at 
a later date than this. It is of capital importance that the 
business men of this country should be relieved of all 
uncertainties of law with regard to their enterprises and 
investments and a clear path indicated which they can 
travel without anxiety. It is as important that theyshould 
be relieved of embarrassment and set free to prosper as 
that private monopoly should be destroyed. The ways of 
action should be thrown wide open. 

"I turn to a subject which I hope can be handled 



WOODROW WILSON 121 

promptly and without serious controversy of any kind. I 
mean the method of selecting nominees for the Presidency 
of the United States. I feel confident that I do not mis- 
interpret the wishes or the expectations of the country 
when I urge the prompt enactment of legislation which 
will provide for primary elections throughout the country 
at which the voters of the several parties may choose their 
nominees for the Presidency without the intervention of 
nominating conventions. I venture the suggestion that 
this legislation should provide for the retention of party 
conventions, but only for the purpose of declaring and 
accepting the verdict of the primaries and formulating the 
platforms of the parties ; and I suggest that these conven- 
tions should consist not of delegates chosen for this single 
purpose, but of the nominees for Congress, the nominees 
for vacant seats in the Senate of the United States, the 
Senators whose terms have not yet closed, the national 
committees, and the candidates for the Presidency them- 
selves, in order that platforms may be framed by those 
responsible to the people for carrying them into effect. 
" These are all matters of vital domestic concern, and 
besides them, outside the charmed circle of our own na- 
tional life in which our affections command us, as well as 
our consciences, there stand out our obligations toward 
our territories oversea. Here we are trustees. Porto 
Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, are ours, indeed, but not 
ours to do what we please with. Such territories, once 
regarded as mere possessions, are no longer to be selfishly 
exploited ; they are part of the domain of public conscience 
and of serviceable and enlightened statesmanship. We 
must administer them for the people who live in them and 
with the same sense of responsibility to them as toward 
our own people in our domestic affairs. No doubt we 
shall successfully enough bind Porto Rico and the 
Hawaiian Islands to ourselves by ties of justice and inter- 
est and affection, but the performance of our duty toward 
the Philippines is a more difficult and debatable matter. 



122 WOODROW WILSON 

We can satisfy the obligations of generous justice toward 
the people of Porto Rico by giving them the ample and 
familiar rights and privileges accorded our own citizens 
in our own territories and our obligations towards the 
people of Hawaii by perfecting the provisions for self-gov- 
ernment already granted them, but in the Philippines we 
must go further. We must hold steadily in view their 
ultimate independence, and we must move toward the time 
of that independence as steadily as the way can be cleared 
and the foundations thoughtfully and permanently laid. 

"Acting under the authority conferred upon the 
President by Congress, I have already accorded the people 
of the islands a majority in both houses of their legislative 
body by appointing five instead of four native citizens to 
the membership of the commission. I believe that in this 
way we shall make proof of their capacity in counsel and 
their sense of responsibility in the exercise of political 
power, and that the success of this step will be sure to 
clear our view for the steps which are to follow. Step by 
step we should extend and perfect the system of self-gov- 
ernment in the islands, making test of them and modify- 
ing them as experience discloses their successes and their 
failures ; that we should more and more put under the con- 
trol of the native citizens of the archipelago the essential 
instruments of their life, their local instrumentalities of 
government, their schools, all the common interest of their 
communities, and so by counsel and experience set up a 
government which all the world will see to be suitable to 
a people whose affairs are under their own control. At 
last, I hope and believe, we are beginning to gain the con- 
fidence of the Filipino peoples. By their counsel and ex- 
perience, rather than by our own, we shall learn how best 
to serve them and how soon it will be possible and wise 
to withdraw our supervision. Let us once find the path 
and set out with firm and confident tread upon it and we 
shall not wander from it or linger upon it. 

"A duty faces us with regard to Alaska which seems 



WOODROW WILSON 123 

to me very pressing and very imperative; perhaps I 
should say a double duty, for it concerns both the political 
and the material development of the Territory. The 
people of Alaska should be given the full Territorial form 
of government, and Alaska, as a storehouse, should be 
unlocked. One key to it is a system of railways. These 
the Government should itself build and administer, and 
the ports and terminals it should itself control in the inter- 
est of all who wish to use them for the service and develop- 
ment of the country and its people. 

"But the construction of railways is only the first 
step ; is only thrusting in the key to the storehouse and 
throwing back the lock and opening the door. How the 
tempting resources of the country are to be exploited is 
another matter, to which I shall take the liberty of from 
time to time calling your attention, for it is a policy which 
must be worked out by well-considered stages, not upon 
theory, but upon lines of practical expediency. It is part 
of our general problem of conservation. We have a freer 
hand in working out the problem in Alaska than in the 
States of the Union; and yet the principle and object are 
the same, wherever we touch it. We must use the resources 
of the country, not lock them up. There need be no con- 
flict or jealousy as between State and Federal authorities, 
for there can be no essential difference of purpose between 
them. The resources in question must be used, but not 
destroyed or wasted ; used, but not monopolized upon any 
narrow idea of individual rights as against the abiding 
interests of communities. That a policy can be worked out 
by conference and concession which will release these 
resources and yet not jeopard or dissipate them, I for one 
have no doubt ; and it can be done on lines of regulation 
which need be no less acceptable to the people and govern- 
ments of the States concerned than to the people and Gov- 
ernment of the Nation at large, whose heritage these re- 
sources are. We must bend our counsels to this end. A 
common purpose ought to make agreement easy. 



124 WOODKOW WILSON 

" Three or four matters of special importance and 
significance I beg that you will permit me to mention in 
closing. 

' ' Our Bureau of Mines ought to be equipped and em- 
powered to render even more effectual service than it 
renders now in improving the conditions of mine labor and 
making the mines more economically productive as well as 
more safe. This is an all-important part of the work of 
conservation; and the conservation of human life and 
energy lies even nearer to our interest than the preserva- 
tion from waste of our material resources. 

"We owe it, in mere justice to the railway employees 
of the country, to provide for them a fair and effective 
employers ' liability act ; and a law that we can stand by 
in this matter will be no less to the advantage of those 
who administer the railroads of the country than to the 
advantage of those whom they employ. The experience of 
a large number of the States abundantly proves that. 

"We ought to devote ourselves to meeting pressing 
demands of plain justice like this as earnestly as to the 
accomplishment of political and economic reforms. Social 
justice comes first. Law is the machinery for its realiza- 
tion and is vital only as it expresses and embodies it. 

"An international congress for the discussion of all 
questions that affect safety at sea is now sitting in London 
at the suggestion of our own Government. So soon as the 
conclusions of that congress can be learned and consid- 
ered we ought to address ourselves, among other things, to 
the prompt alleviation of the very unsafe, unjust, and 
burdensome conditions which now surround the employ- 
ment of sailors and render it extremely difficult to obtain 
the services of spirited and competent men such as every 
ship needs if it is to be safely handled and brought to port. 

' ' May I hot express the very real pleasure I have ex- 
perienced in co-operating with this Congress and sharing 
with it the labors of common service to which it has de- 
voted itself so unreservedly during the past seven months 



WOODROW WILSON 125 

of uncomplaining concentration upon the business of leg- 
islation ? Surely it is a proper and pertinent part of my 
report on 'the state of the Union' to express my admira- 
tion for the diligence, the good temper, and the full com- 
prehension of public duty which has already been mani- 
fested by both the Houses ; and I hope that it may not be 
deemed an impertinent intrusion of myself into the picture 
if I say with how much and how constant satisfaction I 
have availed myself of the privilege of putting my time 
and energy at their disposal alike in counsel and in 
action." 



CHAPTER IX 
THE DESTRUCTION OF MONOPOLY. 

The year 1914, one of the most memorable in the his- 
tory of the world, dawned with President Wilson in the 
midst of the greatest legislative upheaval since the civil 
war. He was far from satisfied with the revision of the 
tariff and a new financial system. The monopolies still 
existed and they were his next target. 

Following the intimation in the first presidential 
passage that "Big Business" would be the next fortress 
to be assailed, committees at once began drawing up bills 
to be presented to Congress in 1914. The rough drafts 
given to the public caused wide discussion. They met 
with almost universal approval of the rank and file of the 
people who had been aroused by published reports that 
the Sherman anti-trust law was insufficient almost to the 
point of futility. 

President Wilson constantly called the attention of 
the people to the fact that the country could be placed on a 
true democratic basis if congress would pass the necessary 
measures. The reduction of the tariff and the Federal 
Reserve Banking system, the first two milestones on the 
new road, had been passed. The third and most necessary 
stage was reached. It was with this idea in mind that the 
President addressed Congress on January 20, 1914. He 
spoke as follows: 

"Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, gentlemen of the Con- 
gress, in my report 'on the state of the Union,' which I 
had the privilege of reading to you on the 2d of December 
last, I ventured to reserve for discussion at a later date 
the subject of additional legislation regarding the very 
difficult and intricate matter of trusts and monopolies. 

126 



WOODROW WILSON 127 

The time now seems opportune to turn to that great ques- 
tion, not only because the currency legislation, which ab- 
sorbed your attention and the attention of the country in 
December, is now disposed of, but also because opinion 
seems to be clearing about us with singular rapidity in this 
other great field of action. In the matter of the currency 
it cleared suddenly and very happily after the much- 
debated act was passed; in respect of the monopolies 
which have multiplied about us and in regard to the 
various means by which they have been organized and 
maintained, it seems to be coming to a clear and all but 
universal agreement in anticipation , of our action, as if 
by way of preparation, making the way easier to see and 
easier to set out upon with confidence and without con- 
fusion of counsel. 

" Legislation has its atmosphere like everything else, 
and the atmosphere of accommodation and mutual under- 
standing which we now breathe with so much refresh- 
ment is matter of sincere congratulation. It ought to make 
our task very much less difficult and embarrassing than it 
would have been had we been obliged to continue to act 
amidst the atmosphere of suspicion and antagonism which 
has so long made it impossible to approach such questions 
with dispassionate fairness. Constructive legislation, 
when successful, is always the embodiment of convincing 
experience and of the mature public opinion which finally 
springs out of that experience. Legislation is a business 
of interpretation, not of origination ; and it is now plain 
what the opinion is to which we must give effect in this 
matter. It is not recent or hasty opinion. It springs out 
of the experience of a whole generation. It has clarified 
itself by long contest, and those who for a long time bat- 
tled with it and sought to change it are now frankly and 
honorably yielding to it and seeking to conform their ac- 
tions to it. 

1 ' The great business men who organized and financed 
monopoly and those who administered it in actual every- 



128 WOODROW WILSON 

day transactions have, year after year until now, either 
denied its existence or justified it as necessary for the 
effective maintenance and development of the vast busi- 
ness processes of the country in the modern circumstances 
of trade and manufacture and finance ; but all the while 
opinion has made head against them. The average busi- 
ness man is convinced that the ways of liberty are also the 
ways of peace and the ways of success as well ; and at last 
the masters of business on the great scale have begun to 
yield their preference and purpose, perhaps their judg- 
ment also, in honorable surrender. 

"What we are purposing to do, therefore, is, happily, 
not to hamper or interfere with business as enlightened 
business men prefer to do it, or in any sense to put it under 
the ban. The antagonism between business and Govern- 
ment is over. We are now about to give expression to the 
best business judgment of America, to what we know to 
be the business conscience and honor of the land. The 
Government and business men are ready to meet each 
other halfway in a common effort to square business meth- 
ods with both public opinion and the law. The best- 
informed men of the business world condemn the methods 
and processes and consequences of monopoly as we con- 
demn them, and the instinctive judgment of the vast ma- 
jority of business men everywhere goes with them. We 
shall now be their spokesmen. That is the strength of our 
position and the sure prophecy of what will ensue when 
our reasonable work is done. 

"When serious contest ends, when men unite in 
opinion and purpose, those who are to change their ways 
of business joining with those who ask for the change, it 
is possible to effect it in the way in which prudent and 
thoughtful and patriotic men would wish to see it brought 
about, with as few, as slight, as easy and simple business 
readjustments as possible in the circumstances, nothing 
essential disturbed, nothing torn up by the roots, no parts 
rent asunder which can be left in wholesome combination. 



WOODROW WILSON 129 

Fortunately, no measures of sweeping or novel change are 
necessary. It will be understood that our object is not to 
unsettle business or anywhere seriously to break its estab- 
lished courses athwart. On the contrary, we desire the 
laws we are now about to pass to be the bulwarks and safe- 
guards of industry against the forces who have disturbed 
it. What we have to do can be done in a new spirit, in 
thoughtful moderation, without revolution of any un- 
toward kind. 

1 'We are all agreed that 'private monopoly is inde- 
fensible and intolerable,' and our program is founded 
upon that conviction. It will be a comprehensive but not 
a radical or unacceptable program and these are its items, 
the changes which opinion deliberately sanctions and for 
which business waits : 

"It waits with acquiescence, in the first place, for laws 
which will effectually prohibit and prevent such interlock- 
ings of the personnel of the directorates of great corpora- 
tions — banks and railroads, industrial, commercial, and 
public service bodies — as in effect result in making those 
who borrow and those who lend practically one and the 
same, those who sell and those who buy but the same per- 
sons trading with one another under different names and 
in different combinations, and those who affect to compete 
in fact partners and masters of some whole field of busi- 
ness. Sufficient time should be allowed, of course, in which 
to effect these changes of organization without incon- 
venience or confusion. 

' ' Such a prohibition will work much more than a mere 
negative good by correcting the serious evils which have 
arisen because, for example, the men who have been the 
directing spirits of the great investment banks have 
usurped the place which belongs to independent industrial 
management working in its own behoof. It will bring new 
men, new energies, a new spirit of initiative, new blood, 
into the management of our great business enterprises. 
It will open the field of industrial development and 



130 WOODROW WILSON 

origination to scores of men who have been obliged to 
serve when their abilities entitled them to direct. It will 
immensely hearten the young men coming on and will 
greatly enrich the business activities of the whole country. 

"In the second place, business men as well as those 
who direct public affairs now recognize, and recognize 
with painful clearness, the great harm and injustice which 
has been done to many, if not all, of the great railroad sys- 
tems of the country by the way in which they have been 
financed and their own distinctive interests subordinated 
to the interests of the men who financed them and of other 
business enterprises which those men wished to promote. 
The country is ready, therefore, to accept, and accept with 
relief as well as approval, a law which will confer upon the 
Interstate Commerce Commission the power to superin- 
tend and regulate the financial operations by which the 
railroads are henceforth to be supplied with the money 
they need for their proper development to meet the rap- 
idly growing requirements of the country for increased 
and improved facilities of transportation. We can not 
postpone action in this matter without leaving the rail- 
roads exposed to many serious handicaps and hazards; 
and the prosperity of the railroads and the prosperity of 
the country are inseparably connected. Upon this question 
those who are chiefly responsible for the actual manage- 
ment and operation of the railroads have spoken very 
plainly and very earnestly, with a purpose we ought to 
be quick to accept. It will be one step, and a very im- 
portant one, toward the necessary separation of the busi- 
ness of production from the business of transportation. 

"The business of the country awaits also, has long 
awaited and has suffered because it could not obtain, 
further and more explicit legislative definition of the pol- 
icy and meaning of the existing antitrust law. Nothing 
hampers business like uncertainty. Nothing daunts or 
discourages it like the necessity to take chances, to run the 
risk of falling under the condemnation of the law before it 



WOODROW WILSON 131 

can make sure just what the law is. Surely we are suffi- 
ciently familiar with the actual processes and methods of 
monopoly and of the many hurtful restraints of trade to 
make definition possible, at any rate up to the limits of 
what experience has disclosed. These practices, being now 
abundantly disclosed, can be explicitly and item by item 
forbidden by statute in such terms as will practically 
eliminate uncertainty, the law itself and the penalty being 
made equally plain. 

"And the business men of the country desire some- 
thing more than that the menace of legal process in these 
matters be made explicit and intelligible. They desire the 
advice, the definite guidance, and information which can 
be supplied by an administrative body, an interstate trade 
commission. 

"The opinion of the country would instantly approve 
of such a commission. It would not wish to see it empow- 
ered to make terms with monopoly or in any sort to assume 
control of business, as if the Government made itself re- 
sponsible. It demands such a commission only as an in- 
dispensable instrument of information and publicity, as 
a clearing house for the facts by which both the public 
mind and the managers of great business undertakings 
should be guided, and as an instrumentality for doing 
justice to business where the processes of the courts or the 
natural forces of correction outside the courts are in- 
adequate to adjust the remedy to the wrong in a way that 
will meet all the equities and circumstances of the case. 

"Producing industries, for example, which have 
passed the point up to which combination may be con- 
sistent with the public interest and the freedom of trade, 
can not always be dissected into their component units as 
readily as railroad companies or similar organizations 
can be. Their dissolution by ordinary legal process may 
oftentimes involve financial consequences likely to over- 
whelm the security market and bring upon it breakdown 
and confusion. There ought to be an administrative com- 



132 WOODROW WILSON 

mission capable of directing and shaping such commis- 
sion, capable of directing and shaping such corrective 
processes, not only in aid of the courts but also by inde- 
pendent suggestion, if necessary. 

"Inasmuch as our object and the spirit of our action 
in these matters is to meet business half way in its proc- 
esses of self-correction and disturb its legitimate course as 
little as possible, we ought to see to it, and the judgment of 
practical and sagacious men of affairs everywhere would 
applaud us if we did see to it, that penalties and punish- 
ments should fall not upon business itself, to its confusion 
and interruption, but upon the individuals who use the 
instrumentalities of business to do things which public 
policy and sound business practice condemn. Every act 
of business is done at the command or upon the initiative 
of some ascertainable person or group of persons. These 
should be held individually responsible and the punish- 
ment should fall upon them, not upon the business or- 
ganization of which they make illegal use. It should be 
one of the main objects of our legislation to divest such 
persons of their corporate cloak and deal with them as 
with those who do not represent their corporations, but 
merely by deliberate intention break the law. Business 
men the country through would, I am sure, applaud us if 
we were to take effectual steps to see that the officers and 
directors of great business bodies were prevented from 
bringing them and the business of the country into dis- 
repute and danger. 

"Other questions remain which will need very 
thoughtful and practical treatment. Enterprises in these 
modern days of great individual fortunes are oftentimes 
interlocked, not by being under the control of the same 
directors but by the fact that the greater part of their cor- 
porate stock is owned by a single person or group of per- 
sons who are in some way intimately related in interest. 

"We are agreed, I take it, that holding companies 
should be prohibited, but what of the controlling private 



WOODROW WILSON 133 

ownership of individuals or actually co-operative groups 
of individuals ? Shall the private owners of capital stock 
be suffered to be themselves in effect holding companies f 
We do not wish, I suppose, to forbid the purchase of stocks 
by any person who pleases to buy them in such quantities 
as he can afford, or in any way arbitrarily to limit the sale 
of stocks to bona fide purchasers. Shall we require the 
owners of stock, when their voting power in several com- 
panies which ought to be independent of one another would 
constitute actual control, to make election in which of them 
they will exercise their right to vote ? This question I ven- 
ture for your consideration. 

"There is another matter in which imperative con- 
siderations of justice and fair play suggest thoughtful 
remedial action. Not only do many of the combinations 
effected or sought to be effected in the industrial world 
work an injustice upon the public in general; they also 
directly and seriously injure the individuals who are put 
out of business in one unfair way or another by the many 
dislodging and exterminating forces of combination. I 
hope that we shall agree in giving private individuals who 
claim to have been injured by these processes the right to 
found their suits for redress upon the facts and judgments 
proved and entered in suits by the Government where the^ 
Government has upon its own initiative sued the combina- 
tions complained of and won its suit, and that the statute 
of limitations shall be suffered to run against such lit- 
igants only from the date of the conclusion of the Gov- 
ernment's action. It is not fair that the private litigant 
should be obliged to set up and establish again the facts 
which the Government has proved. He can not afford, he 
has not the power, to make use of such processes of inquiry 
as the Government has command of. Thus shall individual 
justice be done while the processes of business are rectified 
and squared with the general conscience. 

"I have laid the case before you, no doubt, as it lies in 
your own mind, as it lies in the thought of the country. 



134 WOODROW WILSON 

What must every candid man say of the suggestions I 
have laid before you, of the plain obligations of which I 
have reminded you ? That these are new things for which 
the country is not prepared? No; but that they are old 
things, now familiar, and must of course be undertaken if 
we are to square our laws with the thought and desire of 
the country. Until these things are done, conscientious 
business men the country over will be unsatisfied. They 
are in these things our mentors and colleagues. We are 
now about to write the additional articles of our constitu- 
tion of peace, the peace that is honor and freedom and 
prosperity." 

Upon publication of the presidential address, the 
entire country plunged into a heated debate for and 
against the proposed legislation. Much to the surprise 
of the big business interests, the message did not urge 
their absolute dissolution as they had expected. There 
was a feeling of relief in financial circles, but the enemies 
of big business clamored for more stringent regulation 
than that suggested. 

The immediate result was a feeling of greater secur- 
ity in business circles, and those who had ridiculed the 
president's statement that the depression was psycholog- 
ical finally accepted it as fact. It is well to give here the 
events that followed in connection with the president's 
requests. 

The battle that raged in congress over the first two 
innovations of the Democratic administration had shown 
that congress could not be rushed. Accustomed to the 
method of having a measure proposed at one session and 
acted on at the next, the tendency in congress was to be- 
lieve that President Wilson's request was a problem to 
be given much thought. He disapproved of the idea, how- 
ever, and work was started at once on the new measures. 

His firm opposition to any delay forced congress to 
remain in session all through the summer of 1914 and on 
August 5th the Federal Trade Commission act went to the 



WOODROW WILSON 135 

president for signature. The Clayton anti-trust measure 
was delayed until October 5th, when it, too, was sent to 
the president. Both measures embodied the points laid 
down by the president the preceding January. 

All the president's energy was not directed during 
this period to the consideration of domestic questions 
only. Two important international disputes drew him 
into controversy with Mexico and Great Britain. The 
Mexican question centered around the shipment of arms 
and ammunition to the contending factions. The row with 
Great Britain was in regard to the collection of tolls at 
the Panama Canal which recently had been completed. 

Little need be said at this point about the Mexican 
embroglio. There was a standing proclamation that no 
arms and ammunition were to be sent to Mexico while the 
revolution was raging, but in view of the unlawful gov- 
ernment established by Huerta, President Wilson was 
constrained to revoke it and remove the embargo. He 
issued his proclamation on February 3, 1914, and arms 
were shipped at once by American firms to the forces 
fighting against the Huerta army. 

The Panama Canal act against which Great Britain 
registered such violent objection provided for the exemp- 
tion from toll of all American coastwise trade vessels. 
The British government insisted that it was a contra- 
vention of the rights guaranteed by the treaty of 1901 
which provided for equal toll fees on all vessels regard- 
less of nationality or registry. President Wilson con- 
curred in the British demands and admitted that the 
treaty clause was plain. On March 5, 1914, he appeared 
before a joint session of congress and asked the repeal 
of the clause exempting certain American vessels. His 
speech follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress: I have come to you 
upon an errand which can be very briefly performed, but 
I beg that you will not measure its importance by the 



136 WOODROW WILSON 

number of sentences in which I state it. No communica- 
tion I have addressed to the Congress carried with it 
graver or more far-reaching implications as to the inter- 
est of the country, and I come now to speak upon a mat- 
ter with regard to which I am charged in a peculiar de- 
gree, by the Constitution itself, with personal responsi- 
bility. 

"I have come to ask you for the repeal of that pro- 
vision of the Panama Canal Act of August 24, 1912, which 
exempts vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the 
United States from payment of tolls, and to urge upon 
you the justice, the wisdom, and the large policy of such 
a repeal with the utmost earnestness of which I am 
capable. 

"In my own judgment, very fully considered and ma- 
turely formed, that exemption constitutes a mistaken eco- 
nomic policy from every point of view, and is, moreover, 
in plain contravention of the treaty with Great Britain 
concerning the canal concluded on November 18, 1901. 
But I have not come to urge upon you my personal views. 
I have come to state to you a fact and a situation. What- 
ever may be our own differences of opinion concerning 
this much debated measure, its meaning is not debated 
outside the United States. Everywhere else the language 
of the treaty is given but one interpretation, and that 
interpretation precludes the exemption I am asking you 
to repeal. We consented to the treaty; its language we 
accepted, if we did not originate it ; and we are too big, too 
powerful, too self-respecting a nation to interpret with a 
too strained or refined reading the words of our own 
promises just because we have power enough to give us 
leave to read them as we please. The large thing to do is 
the only thing we can afford to do, a voluntary withdrawal 
from a position everywhere questioned and misunder- 
stood. We ought to reverse our action without raising 
the question whether we were right or wrong, and so 
once more deserve our reputation for generosity and for 



WOODROW WILSON 137 

the redemption of every obligation without quibble or 
hesitation. 

"I ask this of you in support of the foreign policy 
of the administration. I shall not know how to deal with 
other matters of even greater delicacy and nearer conse- 
quence if you do not grant it to me in ungrudging 
measure." 

Congress responded favorably to his request and 
the offending clause of the act was repealed. Scarcely 
had this controversy been settled than the Mexican gov- 
ernment showed its resentment of the proclamation issued 
some months prior by a series of outrages on American 
rights. President Wilson's speech to congress tells the 
story. It follows : 

4 'Gentlemen of the Congress: It is my duty to call 
your attention to a situation which has arisen in our deal- 
ings with Gen. Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City which 
calls for action, and to ask your advice and co-operation. 

1 1 On April 9 a Paymaster of the U. S. S. Dolphin landed 
at the Iturbide bridge landing at Tampico with a whale- 
boat and boat's crew to take off certain supplies for his 
ship, and while engaged in loading the boat was arrested 
by an officer and squad of men of the army of General 
Huerta. Neither the Paymaster nor any one of the crew 
was armed. Two of the men were in the boat when the 
arrest was made, and were obliged to leave it and submit 
to be taken into custody, notwithstanding that the boat 
carried, both at her bow and her stern, the flag of the 
United States. The officer who made the arrest was pro- 
ceeding up one of the streets of the town with his pris- 
oners when met by an officer of higher authority, who 
ordered him to return to the landing and await orders, 
and within an hour and a half from the time of the arrest, 
orders were received from the commander of the Huertista 
forces at Tampico for the release of the Paymaster and 
his men. The release was followed by apologies from the 
commander and also by an expression of regret by Gen- 



138 WOODROW WILSON 

eral Huerta himself. General Huerta urged that martial 
law obtained at the time at Tampico, that orders had been 
issued that no one should be allowed to land at the Itur- 
bide bridge, and that our sailors had no right to land there. 
Our naval commanders at the port had not been notified 
of any such prohibition, and, even if they had been, the 
only justifiable course open to the local authorities would 
have been to request the Paymaster and his crew to 
withdraw and to lodge a protest with the commanding 
officer of the fleet. Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest 
as so serious an affront that he was not satisfied with the 
apologies offered, but demanded that the flag of the 
United States be saluted with special ceremony by the mil- 
itary commander of the port. 

"The incident can not be regarded as a trivial one, 
especially as two of the men arrested were taken from 
the boat itself — that is to say, from the territory of the 
United States ; but had it stood by itself, it might have 
been attributed to the ignorance or arrogance of a single 
officer. 

i l Unfortunately, it was not an isolated case. A series 
of incidents have recently occurred which can not but 
create the impression that the representatives of General 
Huerta were willing to go out of their way to show disre- 
gard for the dignity and rights of this Government, and 
felt perfectly safe in doing what they pleased, making 
free to show in many ways their irritation and contempt. 

"A few days after the incident at Tampico an orderly 
from the U. S. S. Minnesota was arrested at Vera Cruz 
while ashore in uniform to obtain the ship 's mail, and was 
for a time thrown into jail. An official dispatch from this 
Government to its embassy at Mexico City was withheld 
by the authorities of the telegraphic service until per- 
emptorily demanded by our Charge d' Affaires in person. 

"So far as I can learn, such wrong and annoyances 
have been suffered to occur only against representatives 
of the United States. I have heard of no complaints from 



WOODROW WILSON 139 

other governments of similar treatment. Subsequent ex- 
planations and formal apologies did not and could not 
alter the popular impression, which it is possible it had 
been the object of the Huertista authorities to create, that 
the Government of the United States was being singled 
out, and might be singled out with impunity, for slights 
and affronts in retaliation for its refusal to recognize the 
pretensions of General Huerta to be regarded as the Con- 
stitutional Provisional President of the Republic of 
Mexico. 

"The manifest danger of such a situation was that 
such offenses might grow from bad to worse until some- 
thing happened of so gross and intolerable a sort as to 
lead directly and inevitably to armed conflict. It was 
necessary that the apologies of General Huerta and his 
representatives should go much further, that they should 
be such as to attract the attention of the whole popula- 
tion to their significance, and such as to impress upon 
General Huerta himself the necessity of seeing to it that 
no further occasion for explanations and professed re- 
grets should arise. I, therefore, felt it my duty to sus- 
tain Admiral Mayo in the whole of his demand and 
to insist that the flag of the United States should be 
saluted in such a way as to indicate a new spirit and 
attitude on the part of the Huertistas. 

"Such a salute General Huerta has refused, and I 
have come to ask your approval and support in the course 
I now purpose to pursue. 

"This Government can, I earnestly hope, in no cir- 
cumstances be forced into war with the people of Mexico. 
Mexico is torn by civil strife. If we are to accept the tests 
of its own Constitution, it has no government. General 
Huerta has set his power up in the City of Mexico, such 
as it is, without right and by methods for which there can 
be no justification. Only part of the country is under his 
control. 

' ' If armed conflict should unhappily come as a result 



140 WOODROW WILSON 

of his attitude of personal resentment toward this Gov- 
ernment, we should be fighting only General Huerta and 
those who adhere to him and give him their support, and 
our object would be only to restore to the people of the 
distracted republic the opportunity to set up again their 
own laws and their own government. 

' ' But I earnestly hope that war is not now in question. 
I believe that I speak for the American people when I say 
that we do not desire to control in any degree the affairs 
of our sister republic. Our feeling for the people of 
Mexico is one of deep and genuine friendship, and every- 
thing that we have so far done or refrained from doing 
has proceeded from our desire to help them, not to hinder 
or embarrass them. We would not wish even to exercise 
the good offices of friendship without their welcome and 
consent. 

' ' The people of Mexico are entitled to settle their own 
domestic affairs in their own way, and we sincerely desire 
to respect their right. The present situation need have 
none of the grave complications of interference if we 
deal with it promptly, firmly, and wisely. 

"No doubt I could do what is necessary in the cir- 
cumstances to enforce respect for our Government with- 
out recourse to the Congress, and yet not exceed my con- 
stitutional power as President; but I do not wish to act 
in a matter possibly of so grave consequence except in 
close conference and co-operation with both the Senate 
and House. I therefore come to ask your approval that 
I should use the armed forces of the United States in such 
ways and to such an extent as may be necessary to obtain 
from General Huerta and his adherents the fullest recog- 
nition of the rights and dignity of the United States, even 
amid the distressing conditions now unhappily obtaining 
in Mexico. 

' ' There can in what we do be no thought of aggres- 
sion or of selfish aggrandizement. We seek to maintain 
the dignity and authority of the United States only be- 



WOODROW WILSON 141 

cause we wish always to keep our great influence unim- 
paired for the uses of liberty, both in the United States 
and wherever else it may be employed for the benefit of 
mankind. ' ' 

The time for action had come. On the following day 
Admiral Fletcher was ordered to seize the customs house 
at Vera Cruz. The Mexicans resisted and in the fight that 
followed the fleet shelled the defended portion of the town 
while the marines effected a landing under fire. Within a 
few hours the Mexican rebels were driven from the city 
or captured. 

The popular cry was for war with Mexico, but Presi- 
dent Wilson still expressed confidence that a peaceful 
solution could be found. On April 25th the diplomatic 
representatives of Argentina, Brazil and Chile offered 
their services in bringing about arbitration proceedings. 
The mediators met in Niagara Falls and after months 
of debate a protocol was arranged whereby Huerta agreed 
not to stand in the way of a constitutional government, and 
the United States forces were withdrawn from Vera Cruz. 
In this manner President Wilson avoided a war that 
would have been disastrous for both sides and set a poor 
example for other Latin- American countries. 

In the midst of this year of herculean toil, a great 
grief came to President Wilson. At 5 p. m. on August 7th, 
1914, Mrs. Wilson died after a long illness. It was a 
severe blow to the President to have his wife taken from 
him just when she had begun to enjoy the prestige that 
came to her as the ' ' First Lady in the Land, ' ' but he faced 
it with the courage that marked his whole life. 

Both houses of Congress adjourned when Mrs. Wil- 
son's death was announced, and for a brief time the wheels 
of government practically stopped, while everyone paid 
respect to the loss of the President. 

During the day, Mrs. Wilson had spoken to Dr. Gray- 
son about the President, of whose health she thought more 



142 WOODROW WILSON 

than she did her own. "Promise me," she whispered 
faintly, ' ' that if I go you will take care of my husband. ' ' 

It was the same touch of devotion which she had so 
many times repeated — her constant anxiety having been 
that the President might not worry about her or be dis- 
turbed in his official tasks. 

Funeral services for Mrs. Wilson were held August 
13th, 1914, in the historic East Room at the White House, 
where but a few months prior she had witnessed the hap- 
py marriage of her daughter, Jessie, to Francis B. Sayre. 
Interment took place the following day at Rome, Ga., 
where Mrs. Wilson passed many of her girlhood days, and 
where her life romance began. 

Myrtle Hill cemetery at Rome, a beautiful . shaded 
spot, was the final resting place of the wife of the Presi- 
dent. Many telegrams were received at the White House 
from girlhood friends of Mrs. Wilson expressing their 
sympathy, and hoping that she might "be brought back 
home." 

The services at the White House were private, but 
were attended by members of the cabinet, a few relatives, 
and intimate friends, and by committees from the senate 
and house. Reverend Sylvester Beach, of Princeton, New 
Jersey, who married Mrs. Sayre and Mrs. W. G. McAdoo 
in the White House, officiated, and Reverend James H. 
Taylor, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of 
Washington, assisted. 



CHAPTER X 
THE WORLD WAR. 

On July 28, 1914, war laid its devastating hand on 
Europe. It came with such startling suddenness that the 
world was left groping in a mist of unbelief at the reality 
of it all. Events had moved so swiftly and the conviction 
of justice and honor were so well inculcated into the mind 
of the average man that it was hard to conceive of the 
cataclysm as existing in the concrete. 

President Wilson had watched the development of 
the world events leading to the war with deep concern. 
He had not believed that Austria-Hungary would enforce 
her demands against Serbia in the face of the generous 
Serbian offer to arbitrate. He sympathized with Great 
Britain's offer to bring the question before a world court 
of nations and anxiously awaited an opportunity to offer 
the good offices of the United States, known among all 
nations as an exponent of honor, in settling disputes. 

When the first gun was fired and all the nations of 
Europe were drawn into the maelstrom of war, President 
Wilson realized that civilization's cause was lost. He 
then turned his attention to the phases of the problem 
that affected the United States. The first of these was 
the Declaration of London. 

This famous agreement had been signed by the lead- 
ing naval powers of the world and laid down the exact 
rules by which naval warfare could be waged. The Presi- 
dent lost no time but addressed a note to United States 
ambassadors in the countries of the warring nations. It 
follows : 

"Mr. Bryan instructs Mr. Page to inquire whether 
the British Government is willing to agree that the laws 

143 



144 WOODROW WILSON 

of naval warfare as laid down by the Declaration of Lon- 
don of 1909 shall be applicable to ™!*"^™*™^ 
the present conflict in Europe provided that the Govern- 
ments with whom Great Britain is or may be at war also 
Tgree to *uch application. Mr. Bryan further mstructs 
Mr. Page to state that the Government of the United 
States believes that an acceptance of these laws by the bel- 
ligerents would prevent grave misunderstanding which 
may arise as to the relations between neutral powers and 
the belligerents. Mr. Bryan adds that it is jeame itiy 
hoped that this inquiry may receive favorable consid- 

em All the belligerent nations replied to the presidential 
inquiry with courtesy. Germany declared that she would 
remain bound by the declaration, which would not affect 
her in the least, while Great Britain and France, in view 
of the methods by which Germany was preparing to wage 
war, found that the restrictions of the Declaration of 
London would bind them to observe regulations that 
would work to their own disaster. . 

All the belligerents proceeded to sow contact mines 
in the waters near their shores without regard to the 
three-mile limit. This was a military necessity and its 
existence was recognized by President Wilson. < He with- 
drew his request to the belligerents in the following notes : 
''Inasmuch as the British Government consider that 
the conditions of the present European conflict make it 
impossible for them to accept without modification the 
Declaration of London, you are requested to mf orm His 
Majesty's Government that in the circumstances the Gov- 
ernment of the United States feels obliged to withdraw 
its suggestion that the Declaration of London be adopted 
as a temporary code of naval warfare to be observed by 
belligerents and neutrals during the present war; that 
therefore this Government will insist that the rights and 
duties of the United States and its citizens in the present 
war be defined by the existing rules of international law 




PRESIDENT WILSON AT HIS DESK IN THE WHITE 

HOUSE. 




THE PRESIDENT AND MRS. WILSON. 




SEATED ON THE DOORSTEP OF HARLEKENDEN 
HOUSE, THE SUMMER WHITE HOUSE. 




President Wilson's Stickpin, worn constantly as 
a good luck charm. 



WOODROW WILSON 149 

and the treaties of the United States irrespective of the 
provisions of the Declaration of London; and that this 
Government reserves to itself the right to enter a protest 
or demand in each case in which those rights and duties 
so denned are violated or their free exercise interfered 
with by the authorities of His Britannic Majesty's Gov- 
ernment. 

Lansing. 

i 'Referring to Department's August 6, 1 p. m., and 
Embassy's October 22, relative to the Declaration of Lon- 
don, Mr. Lansing instructs Mr. Gerard to inform the 
German Government that the suggestion of the depart- 
ment to belligerents as to the adoption of declaration for 
sake of uniformity as to a temporary code of naval war- 
fare during the present conflict has been withdrawn be- 
cause some of the belligerents are unwilling to accept the 
declaration without modifications and that this Govern- 
ment will therefore insist that the rights and duties of the 
Government and citizens of the United States in the pres- 
ent war be defined by existing rules of international law 
and the treaties of the United States without regard to 
the provisions of the declaration and that the Government 
of the United States reserves to itself the right to enter 
a protest or demand in every case in which the rights and 
duties so defined are violated or their free exercise inter- 
fered with by the authorities of the belligerent govern- 
ments. ,, 

It can be seen from these notes that President Wil- 
son was prepared from the first to insist on the observ- 
ance of American rights at sea. He made it clear that 
America would remain neutral so long as the warring 
nations kept the peace with her. 

The position of the United States was delicate in the 
extreme. Among the 100,000,000 inhabitants of the coun- 
try, a third could be said to have a personal interest in 
the war by reason of relatives left in Europe. 



150 WOODROW WILSON 

In no other country was the war discussed to such an 
extent. The foreign-born American could not be blamed 
for his partisanship, which was a question of blood and 
birth. It was the native-born element who saved the day 
by declaring that a rigid observance to Washington's doc- 
trine of minding America's business first should be fol- 
lowed. None held this opinion more firmly than the 
President. On August 19th, a few weeks after the war 
began, he issued his famous neutrality appeal. It read : 

"My Fellow Countrymen: I suppose that every 
thoughtful man in America has asked himself, during 
these last troubled weeks, what influence the European 
war may exert upon the United States, and I take the lib- 
erty of addressing a few words to you in order to point 
out that it is entirely within our own choice what its effects 
upon us will be and to urge very earnestly upon you the 
sort of speech and conduct which will best safeguard the 
Nation against distress and disaster. 

"The effect of the war upon the United States will 
depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every 
man who really loves America will act and speak in the 
true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality 
and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. The spirit 
of the Nation in this critical matter will be determined 
largely by what individuals and society and those gath- 
ered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers 
and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their 
pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions on the street. 

"The people of the United States are drawn from 
many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. 
It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost 
variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard 
to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will 
wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momen- 
tous struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult 
to allay it. Those responsible for exciting it will assume 
a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing 



WOODROW WILSON 151 

than that the people of the United States, whose love of 
their country and whose loyalty to its Government should 
unite them as Americans all, bound in honor and affection 
to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in 
camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved 
in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action. 

1 ' Such divisions among us would be fatal to our peace 
of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the 
proper performance of our duty as the one great nation 
at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part 
of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace 
and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend. 

"I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to 
speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deep- 
est, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which 
may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking 
sides. The United States must be neutral in fact as well 
as in name during these days that are to try men's souls. 
We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must 
put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every 
transaction that might be construed as a preference of 
one party to the struggle before another. 

"My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel 
sure, the earnest wish and purpose of every thoughtful 
American that this great country of ours, which is, of 
course, the first in our thoughts and in our hearts, should 
show herself in this time of peculiar trial a Nation fit 
beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed 
judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dis- 
passionate action; a Nation that neither sits in judgment 
upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and 
which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and 
disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the 
world. 

"Shall we not resolve to put upon ourselves the re- 
straints which will bring to our people the happiness and 



152 WOODROW WILSON 

the great and lasting influence for peace we covet for 
them?" 

This message met with universal approval from true 
lovers of America and the supporter of the foreign nations 
was looked upon with open disapproval. The reader 
probably can recall the days when pictures of various 
celebrities of foreign nations and the soldiers of the war- 
ring nations would be exhibited in public. He probably 
can recall the silence with which they were greeted and 
the outburst of applause that followed when pictures of 
President Wilson or the national flag were shown. 

The war created a tense situation in the American 
industrial world. Cut off from export by naval condi- 
tions, goods consigned to European markets piled up at 
New York docks and many men were thrown out of work 
because of industries shutting down. The loss to the gov- 
ernment was tremendous. Revenues were negligible. We 
had little trade with South America and the southern 
states were paralyzed by the condition of the cotton 
market. 

The lack of revenue was a real worry to President 
Wilson. On September 4, 1914, he called a joint meeting 
of Congress and appealed for more revenue. His speech 
follows : 

" Gentlemen of the Congress: I come to you today 
to discharge a duty which I wish with all my heart I might 
have been spared ; but it is a very clear duty, and there- 
fore I perform it without hesitation or apology. I come 
to ask very earnestly that additional revenue be provided 
for the Government. 

1 ' During the month of August there was, as compared 
with the corresponding month of last year, a falling off 
of $10,629,538 in the revenues collected from customs. 
A continuation of this decrease in the same proportion 
throughout the current fiscal year would probably mean 
a loss of customs revenues of from sixty to one hundred 
millions. I need not tell you to what this falling off is due. 



WOODROW WILSON 153 

It is due, in chief part, not to the reductions recently made 
in the customs duties, but to the great decrease in impor- 
tations ; and that is due to the extraordinary extent of the 
industrial area affected by the present war in Europe. 
Conditions have arisen which no man foresaw ; they affect 
the whole world of commerce and economic production; 
and they must be faced and dealt with. 

"It would be very unwise to postpone dealing with 
them. Delay in such a matter and in the particular cir- 
cumstances in which we now find ourselves as a nation 
might involve consequences of the most embarrassing 
and deplorable sort, for which I, for one, would not care 
to be responsible. It would be very dangerous in the pres- 
ent circumstances to create a moment's doubt as to the 
strength and sufficiency of the Treasury of the United 
States, its ability to assist, to steady, and sustain the finan- 
cial operations of the country 's business. If the Treasury 
is known, or even thought, to be weak, where will be our 
peace of mind f The whole industrial activity of the coun- 
try would be chilled and demoralized. Just now the pecu- 
liarly difficult financial problems of the moment are being 
successfully dealt with, with great self-possession and good 
sense and very sound judgment ; but they are only in proc- 
ess of being worked out. If the process of solution is to 
be completed, no one must be given reason to doubt the 
solidity and adequacy of the Treasury of the Government 
which stands behind the whole method by which our diffi- 
culties are being met and handled. 

"The Treasury itself could get along for a consider- 
able period, no doubt, without immediate resort to new 
sources of taxation. But at what cost to the business of 
the community? Approximately $75,000,000, a large part 
of the present Treasury balance, is now on deposit with 
national banks distributed throughout the country. It is 
deposited, of course, on call. I need not point out to you 
what the probable consequences of inconvenience and dis- 
tress and confusion would be if the diminishing income of 



154 WOODROW WILSON 

the Treasury should make it necessary rapidly to with- 
draw these deposits. And yet without additional revenue 
that plainly might become necessary, and the time when 
it became necessary could not be controlled or determined 
by the convenience of the business of the country. It 
would have to be determined by the operations and neces- 
sities of the Treasury itself. Such risks are not necessary 
and ought not to be run. "We can not too scrupulously or 
carefully safeguard a financial situation which is at best, 
while war continues in Europe, difficult and abnormal. 
Hesitation and delay are the worst forms of bad policy 
under such conditions. 

11 And we ought not to borrow. We ought to resort to 
taxation, however we may regret the necessity of putting 
additional temporary burdens on our people. To sell 
bonds would be to make a most untimely and unjustifiable 
demand on the money market; untimely, because this is 
manifestly not the time to withdraw working capital from 
other uses to pay the Government's bills; unjustifiable, 
because unnecessary. The country is able to pay any just 
and reasonable taxes without distress. And to every 
other form of borrowing, whether for long periods or for 
short, there is the same objection. These are not the cir- 
cumstances, there is at this particular moment and in this 
particular exigency not the market, to borrow large sums 
of money. What we are seeking is to ease and assist every 
financial transaction, not to add a single additional em- 
barrassment to the situation. The people of this country 
are both intelligent and profoundly patriotic. They are 
ready to meet the present conditions in the right way and 
to support the Government with generous self-denial. 
They know and understand, and will be intolerant only of 
those who dodge responsibility or are not frank with them. 

"The occasion is not of our own making. We had no 
part in making it. But it is here. It affects us as directly 
and palpably almost as if we were participants in the cir- 
cumstances which gave rise to it. We must accept the 



WOODROW WILSON 155 

inevitable with calm judgment and unruffled spirits, like 
men accustomed to deal with the unexpected, habituated 
to take care of themselves, masters of their own affairs 
and their own fortunes. We shall pay the bill, though 
we did not deliberately incur it. 

"In order to meet every demand upon the Treasury 
without delay or peradventure and in order to keep the 
Treasury strong, unquestionably strong, and strong 
throughout the present anxieties, I respectfully urge that 
an additional revenue of $100,000,000 be raised through 
internal taxes devised in your wisdom to meet the emer- 
gency. The only suggestion I take the liberty of making 
is that such sources of revenue be chosen as will begin 
to yield at once and yield with a certain and constant flow. 

"I can not close without expressing the confidence 
with which I approach a Congress, with regard to this or 
any other matter, which has shown so untiring a devotion 
to public duty, which has responded to the needs of the 
Nation throughout a long season despite inevitable fatigue 
and personal sacrifice, and so large a proportion of whose 
Members have devoted their whole time and energy to the 
business of the country." 

To such an extent had the confidence of Congress in 
the President grown that legislation calling for a special 
tax was enacted at once and the crisis was passed. 

The year of 1914 was rapidly drawing to a close. The 
problems of the administration were many but th'ey were 
being met without flinching by President Wilson, who felt 
that he had the support of all true Americans in his 
course. His second annual message told of the dangers 
that threatened America. It was delivered in Congress 
on December 8, 1914, as follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress: The session upon 
which you are now entering will be the closing session of 
the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, 
which will long be remembered for the great body of 
thoughtful and constructive work which it has done, in 



156 WOODROW WILSON 

loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. 
I should like in this address to review the notable record 
and try to make adequate assessment of it ; but no doubt 
we stand too near the work that has been done and are 
ourselves too much part of it to play the part of historians 
toward it. 

' ' Our program of legislation with regard to the regu- 
lation of business is now virtually complete. It has been 
put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and leaves no con- 
jecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear 
.and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel 
without fear or embarrassment. It is the road to un- 
grudged, unclouded success. In it every honest man, 
every man who believes that the public interest is part 
of his own interest, may walk with perfect confidence. 

" Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future 
than of the past. While we have worked at our tasks of 
peace the circumstances of the whole age have been altered 
by war. What we have done for our own land and our 
own people we did with the best that was in us, whether of 
character or of intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a 
confidence in the principles upon which we were acting 
which sustained us at every step of the difficult undertak- 
ing; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is 
now an established part of the legislation of the country. 
Its usefulness, its effects will disclose themselves in expe- 
rience. What chiefly strikes us now, as we look about us 
during these closing days of a year which will be forever 
memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new 
tasks, have been facing them these six months, must face 
them in the months to come, — face them without partisan 
feeling, like men who have forgotten everything but a 
common duty and the fact that we are representatives 
of a great people whose thought is not of us but of what 
America owes to herself and to all mankind in such cir- 
cumstances as these upon which we look amazed and 
anxious. 



WOODROW WILSON 157 

" War , h ™ interrupted the means of trade not onlv 
but also the processes tf production. In Europe it i* 
destroying men and resources wholesale and upon a scale 
unprecedented and appalling. There is reason to fear 
that the time is near, if it be not already at hand when 
several of the countries of Europe will find it 1 fficult to do 

ea ilya'lXlf *** they ^ Wtherto ""wa^ 
easily able to do -many essential and fundamental things 

£ s asTev haf ' ""* fl Mp 3nd ° Ur ™-fo "r°v 
ices as they have never needed them before ; and we should 

be ready more fit and ready than we have ever been 

-It is ot equal consequence that the nations whom 

Europe has usually supplied with innumerable articeo? 

std^ul rrr of which they «« *£K 

ueea ana without which their economic development halto 
and stands still can now get only a small par ofTh° t W 
formerly imported and eagerly look to n S to supply te lr 
all but empty markets. This is particularly true of our 
own neighbors, the States, great and small, of Centra and 
South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run 

of le Gr y ea a t R "f - the "T' * 0t t0 ° Ur P OTts ^t to he ports 

Ilo I am and ° f the older conti "»* of Europe 
1 do not stop to inquire why, or to make any comment on 

e™ a 1 " tio C n U bu e t%, W ? a V nte f StS " S ** ™ " £ 
exp anation but the fact, and our duty and opportunitv 

n the presence of it. Here are markets which wTZst 

supply, and we must find the means of action. The Un ted 

States this great people for whom we speak and act 

should be ready, as never before, to serve Self and to 

serve mankind; ready with its res'ourceMts en«<T a ite 

forces of production, and its means of distribution ' 

mean, w! T 7 p !" acticaI matte r, a matter of ways and 
means We have the resources, but are we fully readv 
to use them? And, if we can make ready wha? we have 
have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not 

We'ar'wthnTb 1 ? **** ™ ?? ~ of <»ion. 

we are willing, but we are not fully able. We have the 



158 WOODROW WILSON 

wish to serve and to serve greatly, generously; but we 
are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready to 
mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to 
use them immediately and at their best, without delay 
and without waste. 

1 ' To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way 
in which we have stunted and hindered the development 
of our merchant marine. And now, when we need ships, 
we have not got them. We have year after year debated, 
without end or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with 
regard to the use of the ores and forests and water powers 
of our national domain in the rich States of the West, 
when we should have acted ; and they are still locked up. 
The key is still turned upon them, the door shut fast at 
which thousands of vigorous men, full of initiative, knock 
clamorously for admittance. The water power of our nav- 
igable streams outside the national domain also, even in 
the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for 
generations, is still not used as it might be, because we 
will and we won 't ; because the laws we have made do not 
intelligently balance encouragement against restraint. 
We withhold by regulation. 

"I have come to ask you to remedy and correct these 
mistakes and omissions, even at this short session of a 
Congress which would certainly seem to have done all the 
work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time 
and the circumstances are extraordinary, and so must 
our efforts be also. 

" Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, 
the one to unlock, with proper safeguards, the resources of 
the national domain, the other to encourage the use of 
the navigable waters outside that domain for the genera- 
tion of power, have already passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives and are ready for immediate consideration and 
action by the Senate. With the deepest earnestness I 
urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn our 
backs upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a gen- 



WOODROW WILSON 159 

uine policy of use and conservation, in the best sense 
of those words. We owe the one measure not only to the 
people of that great western country for whose free and 
systematic development, as it seems to me, our legislation 
has done so little, but also to the people of the Nation as 
a whole ; and we as clearly owe the other in fulfillment of 
our repeated promises that the water power of the coun- 
try should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal 
of great industries which can make economical and profit- 
able use of it, the rights of the public being adequately 
guarded the while, and monopoly in the use prevented. 
To have begun such measures and not completed them 
would indeed mar the record of this great Congress very 
seriously. I hope and confidently believe that they will be 
completed. 

"And there is another great piece of legislation which 
awaits and should receive the sanction of the Senate: I 
mean the bill which gives a larger measure of self-govern- 
ment to the people of the Philippines. How better, in this 
time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could 
we show our confidence in the principles of liberty, as the 
sources as well as the expression of life, how better could 
we demonstrate our own self-possession and steadfast- 
ness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than 
by thus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to 
a dependent people, who will now look more anxiously 
than ever to see whether we have indeed the liberality, the 
unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boasted and 
professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this 
great measure of constructive justice await the action of 
another Congress. Its passage would nobly crown the 
record of these two years of memorable labor. 

"But I think that you will agree with me that this 
does not complete the toll of our duty. How are we to 
carry our goods to the empty markets of which I have 
spoken if we have not the ships'? How are we to build 
up a great trade if we have not the certain and constant 



160 WOODROW WILSON 

means of transportation upon which all profitable and use- 
ful commerce depends ? And how are we to get the ships 
if we wait for the trade to develop without them? To 
correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged 
and all but destroyed the merchant marine of the country, 
to retrace the steps by which we have, it seems almost 
deliberately, withdrawn our flag from the seas, except 
where, here and there, a ship of war is bidden carry it 
or some wandering yacht displays it, would take a long 
time and involve many detailed items of legislation, and 
the trade which we ought immediately to handle would 
disappear or find other channels while we debated the 
items. 

"The case is not unlike that which confronted us 
when our own continent was to be opened up to settlement 
and industry, and we needed long lines of railway, ex- 
tended means of transportation prepared beforehand, if 
development was not to lag intolerably and wait inter- 
minably. We lavishly subsidized the building of trans- 
continental railroads. We look back upon that with regret 
now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of which 
we are ashamed ; but we know that the railroads had to be 
built, and if we had it to do over again we should of course 
build them, but in another way. Therefore I propose an- 
other way of providing the means of transportation, which 
must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our 
trade with our neighbor states of America. It may seem 
a reversal of the natural order of things, but it is true, 
that the routes of trade must be actually opened — by many 
ships and regular sailings and moderate charges — before 
streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably 
through them. 

"Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the 
last session but as yet passed by neither House. In my 
judgment such legislation is imperatively needed and can 
not wisely be postponed. The Government must open 
these gates of trade, and open them wide; open them 






WOODROW WILSON 161 

before it is altogether profitable to open them, or alto- 
gether reasonable to risk private capital to open them 
at a venture. It is not a question of the Government 
monopolizing the field. It should take action to make it 
certain that transportation at reasonable rates will be 
promptly provided, even where the carriage is not at first 
profitable ; and then, when the carriage has become suffi- 
ciently profitable to attract and engage private capital, 
and engage it in abundance, the Government ought to 
withdraw. I very earnestly hope that the Congress will 
be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt this 
exceedingly important bill. 

"The great subject of rural credits still remains to be 
dealt with, and it is a matter of deep regret that the diffi- 
culties of the subject have seemed to render it impossible 
to complete a bill for passage at this session. But it can 
not be perfected yet, and therefore there are no other con- 
structive measures the necessity for which I will at this 
time call your attention to ; but I would be negligent of a 
very manifest duty were I not to call the attention of the 
Senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safety 
at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in 
the convention itself for its acceptance is the last day of 
the present month. The conference in which this conven- 
tion originated was called by the United States ; the rep- 
resentatives of the United States played a very influential 
part indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed con- 
vention; and those provisions are in themselves for the 
most part admirable. It would hardly be consistent with 
the part we have played in the whole matter to let it drop 
and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was 
ratified in May last by the German Government and in 
August by the Parliament of Great Britain. It marks a 
most hopeful and decided advance in international civ- 
ilization. We should show our earnest good faith in a 
great matter by adding our own acceptance of it. 

"There is another matter of which I must make 



162 WOODROW WILSON 

special mention, if I am to discharge my conscience, lest 
it should escape your attention. It may seem a very 
small thing. It affects only a single item of appropria- 
tion. But many human lives and many great enterprises 
hang upon it. It is the matter of making adequate pro- 
vision for the survey and charting of our coasts. It is 
immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the 
immense coast line of Alaska, a coast line greater than 
that of the United States themselves, though it is also 
very important indeed with regard to the older coasts of 
the continent. We can not use our great Alaskan domain, 
ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many 
hidden dangers are not thoroughly surveyed and charted. 
The work is incomplete at almost every point. Ships and 
lives have been lost in threading what were supposed to be 
well-known main channels. We have not provided ade- 
quate vessels or adequate machinery for the survey and 
charting. We have used old vessels that were not big 
enough or strong enough and which were so nearly unsea- 
worthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private 
owners to send them to sea. This is a matter which, as 
I have said, seems small, but is in reality very great. Its 
importance has only to be looked into to be appreciated. 

11 Before I close may I say a few words upon two 
topics, much discussed out of doors, upon which it is 
highly important that our judgments should be clear, 
definite and steadfast? 

"One of these is economy in government expendi- 
tures. The duty of economy is not debatable. It is mani- 
fest and imperative. In the appropriations we pass we 
are spending the money of the great people whose serv- 
ants we are, — not our own. We are trustees and respon- 
sible stewards in the spending. The only thing debatable 
and upon which we should be careful to make our thought 
and purpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us. 
I assert with the greatest confidence that the people of 
the United States are not jealous of the amount their 



WOODROW WILSON 163 

Government costs if they are sure that they get what 
they need and desire for the outlay, that the money is 
being spent for objects of which they approve, and that 
it is being applied with good business sense and man- 
agement. 

"Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks 
and in the means by which those tasks are to be per- 
formed, and very few Governments are organized-, I ven- 
ture to say, as wise and experienced business men would 
organize them if they had a clean sheet of paper to write 
upon. Certainly the Government of the United States 
is not. I think that it is generally agreed that there should 
be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its 
parts so as to secure greater efficiency and effect consid- 
erable savings in expense. But the amount of money 
saved in that way would, I believe, though no doubt con- 
siderable in itself, running, it may be, into the millions, 
be relatively small, — small, I mean, in proportion to the 
total necessary outlays of the Government. It would be 
thoroughly worth effecting, as every saving would, great 
or small. Our duty is not altered by the scale of the 
saving. But my point is that the people of the United 
States do not wish to curtail the activities of this Govern- 
men ; they wish, rather, to enlarge them ; and with every 
enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of the country 
itself, there must come, of course, the inevitable increase 
of expense. The sort of economy we ought to practice 
may be effected, and ought to be effected, by a careful 
study and assessment of the tasks to be performed; and 
the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible 
returns in efficiency and achievement. And, like good 
stewards, we should so account for every dollar of our 
appropriations as to make it perfectly evident what it 
was spent for and in what way it was spent. 

"It is not expenditure but extravagance that we 
should fear being criticized for ; not paying for the legiti- 
mate enterprises and undertakings of a great Government 



164 WOODROW "WILSON 

whose people command what it should do, but adding what 
will benefit only a few or pouring money out for what 
need not have been undertaken at all or might have been 
postponed or better and more economically conceived and 
carried out. The Nation is not niggardly ; it is very gen- 
erous. It will chide us only if we forget for whom we 
pay money out and whose money it is we pay. These are 
large and general standards, but they are not very diffi- 
cult of application to particular cases. 

"The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes 
deeper into the principles of our national life and policy. 
It is the subject of national defense. 

"It can not be discussed without first answering some 
very searching questions. It is said in some quarters 
that we are not prepared for war. What is meant by 
being prepared? Is it meant that we are not ready upon 
brief notice to put a nation in the field, a nation of men 
trained to arms ? Of course we are not ready to do that ; 
and we shall never be in time of peace so long as we retain 
our present political principles and institutions. And 
what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to 
do? To defend ourselves against attack? We have al- 
ways found means to do that, and shall find them when- 
ever it is necessary without calling our people away 
from their necessary tasks to render compulsory military 
service in times of peace. 

"Allow me to speak with great plainness and direct- 
ness upon this great matter and to avow my convictions 
with deep earnestness. I have tried to know what America 
is, what her people think, what they are, what they most 
cherish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer 
passions are in my own heart, — some of the great concep- 
tions and desires which gave birth to this Government and 
which have made the voice of this people a voice of peace 
and hope and liberty among the peoples of the world, 
and that, speaking my own thoughts, I shall, at least in 




MRS. WOODROW WILSON 




Miss 



Jessie Wilson, Daughter of Woodrcw Wilson 




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COLONEL BISHOP 

ACE OF ACES WITH 72 HUN PLANES TO HIS RECORD 



WOODROW WILSON 169 

part, speak theirs also, however faintly and inadequately, 
upon this vital matter. 

"We are at peace with all the world. No one who 
speaks counsel based on fact or drawn from a just and 
candid interpretation of realities can say that there is 
reason to fear that from any quarter our independence 
or the integrity of our territory is threatened. Dread 
of the power of any other nation we are incapable of. We 
are not jealous of rivalry in the fields of commerce or 
of any other peaceful achievement. We mean to live our 
own lives as we will; but we mean also to let live. We 
are, indeed, a true friend to all the nations of the world, 
because we threaten none, covet the possessions of none, 
desire the overthrow of none. Our friendship can be ac- 
cepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is 
offered in a spirit and for a purpose which no one need 
ever question or suspect. Therein lies our greatness. 
We are the champions of peace and of concord. And we 
should be very jealous of this distinction which we have 
sought to earn. Just now we should be particularly jealous 
of it, because it is our dearest present hope that this char- 
acter and reputation may presently, in God 's providence, 
bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been vouch- 
safed any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain 
peace in the world and reconciliation and a healing settle- 
ment of many a matter that has cooled and interrupted 
the friendship of nations. This is the time above all others 
when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength by 
self-possession, our influence by preserving our ancient 
principles of action. 

"From the first we have had a clear and settled policy 
with regard to military establishments. We never have 
had, and while we retain our present principles and ideals 
we never shall have, a large standing army. If asked, Are 
you ready to defend yourselves I we reply, Most assuredly, 
to the utmost ; and yet we shall not turn America into a 
military camp. We will not ask our young men to spend 



170 WOODROW WILSON 

the best years of their lives making soldiers of themselves. 
There is another sort of energy in us. It will know how to 
declare itself and make itself effective should occasion 
arise. And especially when half the world is on fire we 
shall be careful to make our moral insurance against the 
spread of the conflagration very definite and certain and 
adequate indeed. 

"Let us remind ourselves, therefore, of the only thing 
we can do or will do. We must depend in every time of 
national peril, in the future as in the past, not upon a 
standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a 
citizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right 
enough, right American policy, based upon our accustomed 
principles and practices, to provide a system by which 
every citizen who will volunteer for the training may be 
made familiar with the use of modern arms, the rudi- 
ments of drill and maneuver, and the maintenance and 
sanitation of camps. We should encourage such training 
and make it a means of discipline which our young men 
will learn to value. It is right that we should provide it 
not only, but that we should make it as attractive as possi- 
ble, and so induce our young men to undergo it at such 
times as they can command a little freedom and can seek 
the physical development they need, for mere health's 
sake, if for nothing more. Every means by which such 
things can be stimulated is legitimate, and such a method 
smacks of true American ideas. It is right, too, that the 
National Guard of the States should be developed and 
strengthened by every means which is not inconsistent 
with our obligations to our own people or with the estab- 
lished policy of our Government. And this, also, not be- 
cause the time or occasion specially calls for such meas- 
ures, but because it should be our constant policy to make 
these provisions for our national peace and safety. 

' ' More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole 
history and character of our polity. More than this, pro- 
posed at this time, permit me to say, would mean merely 






WOODROW WILSON 171 

that we had lost our self-possession, that we had been 
thrown off our balance by a war with which we have noth- 
ing to do, whose causes can not touch us, whose very exist- 
ence affords us opportunities of friendship and disinter- 
ested service which should make us ashamed of any 
thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble. 
This is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and 
a government like ours were raised up, the opportunity 
not only to speak but actually to embody and exemplify the 
counsels of peace and amity and the lasting concord which 
is based on justice and fair and generous dealing. 

"A powerful navy we have always regarded as our 
proper and natural means of defense ; and it has always 
been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression 
or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of 
navy to build ? We shall take leave to be strong upon the 
seas, in the future as in the past; and there will be no 
thought of offense or of provocation in that. Our ships 
are our natural bulwarks. When will the expert tell us 
just what kind we should construct — and when will they 
be right for ten years together, if the relative efficiency of 
craft of different kinds and uses continues to change as 
we have seen it change under our very eyes in these last 
few months I 

"But I turn away from the subject. It is not new. 
There is no new need to discuss it. We shall not alter our 
attitude toward it because some amongst us are nervous 
and excited. We shall easily and sensibly agree upon a pol- 
icy of defense. The question has not changed its aspect be- 
cause the times are not normal. Our policy will not be for 
an occasion. It will be conceived as a permanent and set- 
tled thing, which we will pursue at all seasons, without 
haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with the 
peace of the world, the abiding friendship of states, and 
the unhampered freedom of all with whom we deal. Let 
there be no misconception. The country has been misin- 
formed. We have not been negligent of national defense. 



172 WOODROW WILSON 

We are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting 
upon us. We shall learn and profit by the lesson of every 
experience and every new circumstance; and what is 
needed will be adequately done. 

"I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great 
tasks and duties of peace which challenge our best powers 
and invite us to build what will last, the tasks to which we 
can address ourselves now and at all times with free- 
hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive 
wisdom we possess. To develop our life and our re- 
sources ; to supply our own people, and the people of the 
world as their need arises, from the abundant plenty of 
our fields and our marts of trade ; to enrich the commerce 
of our own States and of the world with the products of 
our mines, our farms, and our factories, with the creations 
of our thought and the fruits of our character, — this is 
what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm steadily, 
now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our 
life as a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an 
emancipated spirit may do for men and for societies, for 
individuals, for states, and for mankind. ' ' 






CHAPTER XI 
AMERICA'S EIGHTS. 

The opening days of 1915 saw the United States rap- 
idly undergoing an internal change. The needs of the 
allied nations were pressing, as they lacked the facilities 
for producing war materials, and it was natural that they 
should turn to America for aid. 

It was immediately forthcoming from the manufac- 
turers, who were quick to see that a new vast market was 
opened to American industry. President Wilson fully 
concurred in the idea that America should take advantage 
of the circumstances and sell arms and ammunition with- 
out restraint to any of the warring powers who could call 
for the goods. 

In following this policy, the United States had the 
precedent of war conditions from the beginning of history. 
As recent as 1898, while this nation was at war with Spain, 
the European powers had thrown their industrial doors 
open to the Spanish government, and it was no uncommon 
thing for a captured Spanish rifle to be found bearing the 
inscription ' ' Made in Germany. ' ' To all of this the United 
States gave little heed. It was to be expected that a nation 
at war would buy in any available market the materials 
needed to prosecute the war with all vigor. 

In spite of the German methods for the last forty 
years, when she had not failed to play an industrial part in 
every war, there was an immediate protest against the 
shipment of arms and ammunition from the United States. 
The German government, in announcements to its people, 
declared that the United States was prolonging the war 
by selling munitions. The American reply was that Ger- 

173 



174 WOODROW WILSON 

many also could buy if she could provide a method of 
delivering. 

President Wilson was quick to see the advantage of 
establishing the trade name of American manufacturers 
in Europe and South America. With that idea in view he 
appeared before a meeting of the United States Chamber 
of Commerce in Washington on February 3, 1915, and 
addressed the meeting as follows : 

"I feel that it is hardly fair to you for me to come in 
in this casual fashion among a body of men who have been 
seriously discussing great questions, and it is hardly fair 
to me, because I come in cold, not having had the ad- 
vantage of sharing the atmosphere of your deliberations 
and catching the feeling of your conference. Moreover, I 
hardly know just how to express my interest in the things 
you are undertaking. . . . 

"I have asked myself before I came here today, what 
relation you could bear to the Government of the United 
States and what relation the Government could bear to 
you? 

' ' There are two aspects and activities of the Govern- 
ment with which you will naturally come into most direct 
contact. The first is the Government 's power of inquiry, 
systematic and disinterested inquiry, and its power of 
scientific assistance. You get an illustration of the latter, 
for example, in the Department of Agriculture. Has it 
occurred to you, I wonder, that we are just upon the eve 
of a time when our Department of Agriculture will be of 
infinite importance to the whole world! There is a short- 
age of food in the world now. That shortage will be much 
more serious a few months from now than it is now. It is 
necessary that we should plant a great deal more; it is 
necessary that our lands should yield more per acre than 
they do now; it is necessary that there should not be a 
plow or a spade idle in this country if the world is to be 
fed. And the methods of our farmers must feed upon the 
scientific information to be derived from the State depart- 






WOODROW WILSON 175 

merits of agriculture, and from that taproot of all, the 
United States Department of Agriculture. The object 
and use of that department is to inform men of the latest 
developments and disclosures of science with regard to all 
the processes by which soils can be put to their proper use 
and their fertility made the greatest possible. Similarly 
with the Bureau of Standards. It is ready to supply those 
things by which you can set forms, you can set bases, for 
all the scientific processes of business. 

"I have a great admiration for the scientific parts of 
the Government of the United States, and it has amazed 
me that so few men have discovered them. Here in these 
departments are quiet men, trained to the highest degree 
of skill, serving for a petty remuneration along lines that 
are infinitely useful to mankind; and yet in some cases 
they waited to be discovered until this Chamber of Com- 
merce of the United States was established. Coming to 
this city, officers of that association found that there were 
here things that were infinitely useful to them and with 
which the whole United States ought to be put into com- 
munication. 

"The Government of the United States is very prop- 
erly a great instrumentality of inquiry and information. 
One thing we are just beginning to do that we ought to 
have done long ago : We ought long ago to have had our 
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. We ought 
long ago to have sent the best eyes of the Government out 
into the world to see where the opportunities and openings 
of American commerce and American genius were to be 
found — men who were not sent out as the commercial 
agents of any particular set of business men in the United 
States, but who were eyes for the whole business com- 
munity. . . . 

"We are just beginning to do, systematically and 
scientifically, what we ought long ago to have done, to 
employ the Government of the United States to survey the 
world in order that American commerce might be guided. 



176 WOODROW WILSON . 

1 ' But there are other ways of using the Government 
of the United States, ways that have long been tried, 
though not always with conspicuous success or fortunate 
results. You can use the Government of the United States 
by influencing its legislation. That has been a very active 
industry, but it has not always been managed in the inter- 
est of the whole people. It is very instructive and useful 
for the Government of the United States to have such 
means as you are ready to supply for getting a sort of con- 
sensus of opinion which proceeds from no particular quar- 
ter and originates with no particular interest. Informa- 
tion is the very foundation of all right action in legisla- 
tion. . . . 

"If we on the outside cannot understand the thing 
and cannot get advice from the inside, then we will have 
to do it with the flat hand and not with the touch of skill 
and discrimination. Isn 't that true I Men on the inside of 
business know how business is conducted and they cannot 
complain if men on the outside make mistakes about busi- 
ness if they do not come from the inside and give the kind 
of advice which is necessary. 

"The trouble has been that when they came in the 
past — for I think the thing is changing very rapidly — they 
came with all their bristles out ; they came on the defen- 
sive ; they came to see, not what they could accomplish, but 
what they could prevent. They did not come to guide; 
they came to block. That is of no use whatever to the gen- 
eral body politic. What has got to pervade us like a great 
motive power is that we cannot, and must not, separate 
our interests from one another, but must pool our inter- 
ests. A man who is trying to fight for his single hand is 
fighting against the community and not fighting with it. 
There are a great many dreadful things about war, as 
nobody needs to be told in this day of distress and of ter- 
ror, but there is one thing about war which has a very 
splendid side, and that is the consciousness that a whole 
nation gets that they must all act as a unit for a common 



WOODROW WILSON 177 

end. And when peace is as handsome as war there will be 
no war. When men, I mean, engage in the pursuits of 
peace in the same spirit of self-sacrifice and of conscious 
service of the community with which, at any rate, the com- 
mon soldier engages in war, then shall there be wars no 
more. You have moved the vanguard for the United 
States in the purpose of this association just a little nearer 
that ideal. That is the reason I am here, because I be- 
lieve it. 

" There is a specific matter about which I, for one, 
want your advice. Let me say, if I may say it without dis- 
respect, that I do not think you are prepared to give it 
right away. You will have to make some rather extended 
inquiries before you are ready to give it. What I am 
thinking of is competition in foreign markets as between 
the merchants of different nations. 

"I speak of the subject with a certain degree of hesi- 
tation, because the thing farthest from my thought is tak- 
ing advantage of nations now disabled from playing their 
full part in that competition, and seeking a sudden selfish 
advantage because they are for the time being disabled. 
Pray believe me that we ought to eliminate all that thought 
from our minds and consider this matter as if we and the 
other nations now at war were in the normal circumstances 
of commerce. 

' ' There is a normal circumstance of commerce in 
which we are apparently at a disadvantage. Our anti- 
trust laws are thought by some to make it illegal for mer- 
chants in the United States to form combinations for the 
purpose of strengthening themselves in taking advantage 
of the opportunities of foreign trade. That is a very 
serious matter for this reason : There are some corpora- 
tions, and some firms for all I know, whose business is 
great enough and whose resources are abundant enough to 
enable them to establish selling agencies in foreign coun- 
tries ; to enable them to extend the long credits which in 



178 WOODROW WILSON 

some cases are necessary in order to keep the trade they 
desire; to enable them, in other words, to organize their 
business in foreign territory in a way which the smaller 
man cannot afford to do. His business has not grown big 
enough to permit him to establish selling agencies. The 
export commission merchant, perhaps, taxes him a little 
too highly to make that an available competitive means of 
conducting and extending his business. 

"The question arises, therefore, how are the smaller 
merchants, how are the younger and weaker corporations 
going to get a foothold as against the combinations which 
are permitted and even encouraged by foreign govern- 
ments in this field of competition? There are -govern- 
ments which, as you know, distinctly encourage the forma- 
tion of great combinations in each particular field of com- 
merce in order to maintain selling agencies and to extend 
long credits, and to use and maintain the machinery which 
is necessary for the extension of business ; and American 
merchants feel that they are at a very considerable disad- 
vantage in contending against that. The matter has been 
many times brought to my attention, and I have each time 
suspended judgment. I want to be shown this : I want to 
be shown how such a combination can be made and con- 
ducted in a way which will not close it against the use of 
everybody who wants to use it. A combination has a 
tendency to exclude new members. When a group of men 
get control of a good thing, they do not see any particular 
point in letting other people into the good thing. What I 
would like very much to be shown, therefore, is a method 
of cooperation which is not a method of combination. Not 
that the two words are mutually exclusive, but we have 
come to have a special meaning attached to the word ' ' com- 
bination. " Most of our combinations have a safety lock, 
and you have to know the combination to get in. I want 
to know how these cooperative methods can be adopted 
for the benefit of everybody who wants to use them, and I 
say frankly if I can be shown that, I am for them. If I 



WOODROW WILSON 179 

can not be shown that, I am against them. I hasten to add 
that I hopefully expect I can be shown that. 

" You, as I have just now intimated, probably can not 
show it to me offhand, but by the methods which you have 
the means of using you certainly ought to be able to throw 
a vast deal of light on the subject." 

Whether this address brought about the German 
proclamation issued on the following day, in which Ger- 
many notified the world that neutral shipping would pro- 
ceed at its own risk through certain zones in the vicinity 
of Europe, is a debatable question. It is certain that the 
proclamation was aimed at American activities in pursu- 
ing the legal right to sell goods in any available market. 

The bluff, for such it was, was aimed at the United 
States. It aroused the greatest indignation, and all eyes 
were turned to the President. Hope was expressed that 
the protest sure to ensue would be of sufficient strength to 
prevent Germany from carrying out her plan of piracy. 

There also was considerable popular indignation over 
the statement in the German note that Great Britain was 
misusing the United States naval flag to protect her mer- 
chant ships. The feeling was for fair play and the rights 
of all, rather than an apology for Great Britain. The 
President was urged publicly to call the attention of both 
nations to their delinquency. 

The note to Germany was sent on February 10, 1915, 
and carried a stinging reprimand. It follows : 

"The Government of the United States, having had 
its attention directed to the proclamation of the German 
Admiralty issued on the fourth of February, that the 
waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland, including 
the whole of the English Channel, are to be considered as 
comprised within the seat of war ; that all enemy merchant 
vessels found in those waters after the eighteenth instant 
will be destroyed, although it may not always be possible 
to save crews and passengers; and that neutral vessels 



180 WOODROW WILSON 

expose themselves to danger within this zone of war be- 
cause, in view of the misuse of neutral flags said to have 
been ordered by the British Government on the thirty- 
first of January and of the contingencies of maritime war- 
fare, it may not be possible always to exempt neutral ves- 
sels from attacks intended to strike enemy ships, feels it 
to be its duty to call the attention of the Imperial German 
Government, with sincere respect and the most friendly 
sentiments but very candidly and earnestly, to the very 
serious possibilities of the course of action apparently 
contemplated under that proclamation. 

"The Government of the United States views those 
possibilities with such grave concern that it feels it to be 
its privilege, and indeed its duty in the circumstances, to 
request the Imperial German Government to consider 
before action is taken the critical situation in respect of 
the relations between this country and Germany which 
might arise were the German naval forces, in carrying out 
the policy foreshadowed in the Admiralty 's proclamation, 
to destroy any merchant vessel of the United States or 
cause the death of American citizens. 

"It is, of course, not necessary to remind the German 
Government that the sole right of a belligerent in dealing 
with neutral vessels on the high seas is limited to visit and 
search, unless a blockade is proclaimed and effectively 
maintained, which this Government does not understand 
to be proposed in this case. To declare or exercise a right 
to attack and destroy any vessel entering a prescribed area 
of the high seas without first certainly determining its 
belligerent nationality and the contraband character of its 
cargo would be an act so unprecedented in naval warfare 
that this Government is reluctant to believe that the Im- 
perial Government of Germany in this case contemplates 
it as possible. The suspicion that enemy ships are using 
neutral flags improperly can create no just presumption 
that all ships traversing a prescribed area are subject to 
the same suspicion. It is to determine exactly such ques- 



WOODROW WILSON 181 

tions that this Government understands the right of visit 
and search to have been recognized. 

4 'This Government has carefully noted the explana- 
tory statement issued by the Imperial German Govern- 
ment at the same time with the proclamation of the Ger- 
man Admiralty, and takes this occasion to remind the 
Imperial German Government very respectfully that the 
Government of the United States is open to none of the 
criticisms for unneutral action to which the German Gov- 
ernment believe the governments of certain of other 
neutral nations have laid themselves open ; that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States has not consented to or 
acquiesced in any measures which may have been taken by 
the other belligerent nations in the present war which 
operate to restrain neutral trade, but has, on the contrary, 
taken in all such matters a position which warrants it in 
holding those governments responsible in the proper way 
for any untoward effects upon American shipping which 
the accepted principles of international law do not justify ; 
and that it, therefore, regards itself as free in the present 
instance to take with a clear conscience and upon accepted 
principles the position indicated in this note. 

"If the commanders of German vessels of war should 
act upon the presumption that the flag of the United States 
was not being used in good faith and should destroy on the 
high seas an American vessel or the lives of American 
citizens, it would be difficult for the Government of the 
United States to view the act in any other light than as an 
indefensible violation of neutral rights which it would' be 
very hard, indeed, to reconcile with the friendly relations 
now so happily subsisting between the two Governments. 

"If such a deplorable situation should arise, the Im- 
perial German Government can readily appreciate that 
the Government of the United States would be constrained 
to hold the Imperial German Government to a strict ac- 
countability for such acts of their naval authorities and to 
take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard 



182 WOODROW "WILSON 

American lives and property and to secure to American 
citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights 
on the high seas. 

"The Government of the United States, in view of 
these considerations, which it urges with the greatest re- 
spect and with the sincere purpose of making sure that no 
misunderstanding may arise and no circumstance occur 
that might even cloud the intercourse of the two Govern- 
ments, expresses the confident hope and expectation that 
the Imperial German Government can and will give assur- 
ance that American citizens and their vessels will not be 
molested by the naval forces of Germany otherwise than 
by visit and search, though their vessels may be traversing 
the sea area delimited in the proclamation of the German 
Admiralty. 

"It is added for the information of the Imperial Gov- 
ernment that representations have been made to His 
Britannic Majesty's Government in respect to the unwar- 
ranted use of the American flag for the protection of 
British ships. ' ' 

The same afternoon a message of protest was sent to 
the British Government. It treated at length of the 
threats made by Germany and the fact that the United 
States would have to hold Great Britain accountable in a 
measure for acts of aggression should it be found that 
British merchantmen were misusing the American flag. 
The note follows : 

"The department has been advised of the Declaration 
of the German Admiralty on February 4th, indicating that 
the British Government had on January 31st explicitly 
authorized the use of neutral flags on British merchant 
vessels, presumably for the purpose of avoiding recogni- 
tion by German naval forces. The department 's attention 
has also been directed to reports in the press that the cap- 
tain of the Lusitania, acting upon orders or information 
received from the British authorities, raised the Ameri- 
can flag as his vessel approached the British coasts, in 



WOODROW WILSON 183 

order to escape anticipated attacks by German sub- 
marines: Today's press reports also contain an alleged 
official statement of the Foreign Office defending the use 
of the flag of a neutral country by a belligerent vessel in 
order to escape capture or attack by an enemy. 

"Assuming that the foregoing reports are true, the 
Government of the United States, reserving for future 
consideration the legality and propriety of the deceptive 
use of the flag of a neutral power in any case for the pur- 
pose of avoiding capture, desires very respectfully to 
point out to His Britannic Majesty's Government the 
serious consequences which may result to American ves- 
sels and American citizens if this practice is continued. 

"The occasional use of the flag of a neutral or an 
enemy under the stress of immediate pursuit and to de- 
ceive an approaching enemy, which appears by the press 
reports to be represented as the precedent and justifica- 
tion used to support this action, seems to this Government 
a very different thing from an explicit sanction by a bel- 
ligerent government for its merchant ships generally to 
fly the flag of a neutral power within certain portions of 
the high seas which are presumed to be frequented with 
hostile warships. The formal declaration of such a policy 
of general misuse of a neutral's flag jeopardizes the ves- 
sels of the neutral visiting those waters in a peculiar de- 
gree by raising the presumption that they are of belliger- 
ent nationality regardless of the flag which they may carry. 

"In view of the announced purpose of the German 
Admiralty to engage in active naval operations in certain 
delimited sea areas adjacent to the coasts of Great Britain 
and Ireland, the Government of the United States would 
view with anxious solicitude any general use of the flag of 
the United States by British vessels traversing those 
waters. A policy such as the one which His Majesty's 
Government is said to intend to adopt would, if the decla- 
ration of the German Admiralty is put in force, it seems 
clear, afford no protection to British vessels, while it 



184 WOODROW WILSON 

would be a serious and constant menace to the lives and 
vessels of American citizens. 

"The Government of the United States, therefore, 
trusts that His Majesty's Government will do all in their 
power to restrain vessels of British nationality from the 
deceptive use of the flag of the United States in the sea 
area defined in the German declaration, since such prac- 
tice would greatly endanger the vessels of a friendly power 
navigating those waters and would even seem to impose 
upon the Government of Great Britain a measure of re- 
sponsibility for the loss of American lives and vessels in 
case of an attack by a German naval force. 

"Please present a note to Sir Edward Grey in the 
sense of the foregoing and impress him with the grave 
concern which this Government feels in the circumstances 
in regard to the safety of American vessels and lives in the 
war zone declared by the German Admiralty. 

"You may add that this Government is making 
earnest representations to the German Government in 
regard to the danger to American vessels and citizens if 
the declaration of the German Admiralty is put into 
effect." 

The replies of both nations to the American notes 
were conciliatory in the extreme, but Germany refused to 
withdraw the threat of submarine warfare. This led to 
the sending of a note to both nations asking them to agree 
on certain defined points and abide by them for the protec- 
tion of neutrals. The note was despatched on February 
20, and read : 

"In view of the correspondence which has passed 
between this Government and Great Britain and Germany 
respectively, relative to the declaration of a war zone by 
the German Admiralty and the use of neutral flags by 
British merchant vessels, this Government ventures to 
express the hope that the two belligerent Govermnents 
may, through reciprocal concessions, find a basis for 
agreement which will relieve neutral ships engaged in 



WOODROW WILSON 185 

peaceful commerce from the great dangers which they will 
incur in the high seas adjacent to the coasts of the bel- 
ligerents. 

"The Government of the United States respectfully 
suggests that an agreement in terms like the following 
might be entered into. This suggestion is not to be re- 
garded as in any sense a proposal made by this Govern- 
ment, for it of course fully recognizes that it is not its 
privilege to propose terms of agreement between Great 
Britain and Germany, even though the matter be one in 
which it and the people of the United States are directly 
and deeply interested. It is merely venturing to take the 
liberty which it hopes may be accorded a sincere friend 
desirous of embarrassing neither nation involved and of 
serving, if it may, the common interests of humanity. The 
course outlined is offered in the hope that it may draw 
forth the views and elicit the suggestions of the British 
and German Governments on a matter of capital interest 
to the whole world. 

1 ' Germany and Great Britain to agree : 

' ' 1. That neither will sow any floating mines, whether 
upon the high seas or in territorial waters ; that neither 
will plant on the high seas anchored mines except within 
cannon range of harbors for defensive purposes only ; and 
that all mines shall bear the stamp of the Government 
planting them and be so constructed as to become harm- 
less if separated from their moorings. 

"2. That neither will use submarines to attack mer- 
chant vessels of any nationality except to enforce the right 
of visit and search. 

' ' 3. That each will require their respective merchant 
vessels not to use neutral flags for the purpose of disguise 
or ruse de guerre. 

1 ' Germany to agree : 

"That all importations of food or foodstuffs from the 
United States (and from such other neutral countries as 
may ask it) into Germany shall be consigned to agencies 



186 WOODROW WILSON 

to be designated by the United States Government ; that 
these American agencies shall have entire charge and con- 
trol without interference on the part of the German Gov- 
ernment, of the receipt and distribution of such importa- 
tions, and shall distribute them solely to retail dealers 
bearing licenses from the German Government entitling 
them to receive and furnish such food and foodstuffs to 
noncombatants only ; that any violation of the terms of the 
retailers' licenses shall work a forfeiture of their rights 
to receive such food and foodstuffs for this purpose ; and 
that such food and foodstuffs will not be requisitioned by 
the German Government for any purpose whatsoever or 
be diverted to the use of the armed forces of Germany 

i ' Great Britain to agree : 

' ' That food and foodstuffs will not be placed upon the 
absolute contraband list and that shipments of such com- 
modities will not be interfered with or detained by British 
authorities if consigned to agencies designated by the 
United States Government in Germany for the receipt and 
distribution of such cargoes to licensed German retailers 
for distribution solely to the noncombatant population. 

"In substituting this proposed basis of agreement 
this Government does not wish to be understood as admit- 
ting or denying any belligerent or neutral right estab- 
lished by the principles of international law, but would 
consider the agreement, if acceptable to the interested 
powers, a modus vivendi based upon expediency rather 
than legal right and as not binding upon the United States 
either in its present form or in a modified form until ac- 
cepted by this Government. ' ' 

Germany replied that she would be willing to abide by 
the rules laid down by President Wilson in case the 
British navy would lift the blockade of German ports. 
Great Britain stated that the blockade would be continued 
because Germany would not agree to the cessation of sub- 
marine warfare, which was clearly illegal when directed 
against unarmed merchant ships. The reply of the British 



WOODROW WILSON 187 

Government caused President Wilson once more to direct 
a note to London, as follows : 

"In regard to the recent communications received 
from the British and French Governments concerning re- 
straints upon commerce with Germany, please communi- 
cate with the British foreign office in the sense following : 

1 ' The difficulty of determining action upon the British 
and French declarations of intended retaliation upon 
commerce with Germany lies in the nature of the proposed 
measures in their relation to commerce by neutrals. 

"While it appears that the intention is to interfere 
with and take into custody all ships, both outgoing and 
incoming, trading with Germany, which is in effect a 
blockade of German ports, the rule of blockade, that a 
ship attempting to enter or leave a German port, regard- 
less of the character of its cargo, may be condemned, is not 
asserted. 

"The language of the declaration is 'the British and 
French Governments will, therefore, hold themselves free 
to detain and take into port ships carrying goods of pre- 
sumed enemy destination, ownership, or origin. It is not 
intended to confiscate such vessels or cargoes unless they 
would otherwise be liable to condemnation. ' 

' ' The first sentence claims a right pertaining only to 
a state of blockade. The last sentence proposes a treat- 
ment of ships and cargoes as if no blockade existed. 
The two together present a proposed course of action 
previously unknown to international law. 

"As a consequence neutrals have no standard by 
which to measure their rights or to avoid danger to their 
ships and cargoes. The paradoxical situation thus created 
should be changed and the declaring powers ought to as- 
sert whether they rely upon the rules governing a blockade 
or the rules applicable when no blockade exists. 

"The declaration presents other perplexities. 

"The last sentence quoted indicates that the rules of 
contraband are to be applied to cargoes detained. The 



188 WOODROW WILSON 

rule covering noncontraband articles carried in neutral 
bottoms is that the cargoes shall be released and the ships 
allowed to proceed. This rule can not, under the first sen- 
tence quoted, be applied as to destination. What then is 
to be done with a cargo of noncontraband goods detained 
under the declaration? The same question may be asked 
as to conditional contraband cargoes. 

' ' The foregoing comments apply to cargoes destined 
for Germany. Cargoes coming out of German ports pre- 
sent another problem under the terms of the declaration. 
Under the rules governing enemy exports only goods 
owned by enemy subjects in enemy bottoms are subject to 
seizure and condemnation. Yet by the declaration it is 
purposed to seize and take into port all goods of enemy 
' ownership and origin. ' The word ' origin ' is particularly 
significant. The origin of goods destined to neutral ter- 
ritory on neutral ships is not and never has been a ground 
for forfeiture except in case a blockade is declared and 
maintained. What then would the seizure amount to in 
the present case except to delay the delivery of the goods! 
The declaration does not indicate what disposition would 
be made of such cargoes if owned by a neutral or if owned 
by an enemy subject. Would a different rule be applied 
according to ownership! If so, upon what principles of 
international law would it rest ? And upon what rule if no 
blockade is declared and maintained could the cargo of a 
neutral ship sailing out of a German port be condemned! 
If it is not condemned, what other legal course is there 
but to release it! 

"While this Government is fully alive to the possi- 
bility that the methods of modern naval warfare, particu- 
larly in the use of the submarine for both defensive and 
offensive operations, may make the former means of main- 
taining a blockade a physical impossibility, it feels that it 
can be urged with great force that there should be also 
some limit to 'the radius of activity,' and especially so if 
this action by the belligerents can be construed to be a 



WOODROW WILSON 189 

blockade. It would certainly create a serious state of 
affairs if, for example, an American vessel laden with a 
cargo of German origin should escape the British patrol in 
European waters only to be held up by a cruiser off New 
York and taken into Halifax." 

In this manner did the hatred of the contending 
factions grow and wax stronger. During the spring of 
1915 the German submarines waged incessant warfare on 
shipping of all kinds and descriptions. It was this war- 
fare and the necessity of dealing a blow at England that 
led up to the most shocking tragedy the world has ever 
seen. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA. 

The sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, roused 
public sentiment in the United States to fever heat. De- 
nunciations of Germany were on every lip, and German 
propaganda got a severe setback when bulletins were 
placed before newspaper offices in various cities announc- 
ing the disaster. 

The plot reached back to December, 1914, when Ger- 
man agents met nightly at the secret places in New York 
City. They were in close touch with the German foreign 
office at Berlin, through the Sayville wireless station 
which was German-owned and German-controlled. 

The Lusitania was a direct challenge to the German 
Admiralty. The vessel was unarmed and carried its 
regular trans- Atlantic passenger list of men, women and 
children, many of them Americans. The liner did not 
constitute a military menace to Germany or her allies. 

In the possession of Boy-Ed, the arch conspirator in 
this crime of crimes, was a copy of the secret British code. 
By its use, in connection with the wireless station, he knew 
the position of every British ship on the Atlantic. To 
facilitate his communication with German agents in Eng- 
land, he evolved another code based on apparently harm- 
less business communications and sympathetic messages 
between families. During the first month of 1915, efforts 
were made on several occasions to attack the Lusitania. 
Owing to the ship's speed, these attacks came to naught. 
It was decided that new plans would have to be made if 
the Germans were going to sink the ship. 

Reports received by Boy-Ed from spies in Ireland 
furnished the first necessary information. They stated 

190 



WOODROW WILSON 191 

that the Lusitania invariably signaled when near the Irish 
coast and waited for instructions from the British Admi- 
ralty. The customary procedure was for the Admiralty to 
notify the captain where he could meet his convoy. The 
reports also stated that wireless communication from 
the Admiralty could be juggled to meet the design of 
Boy-Ed. 

On April 23, 1915, the following advertisement ap- 
peared in the New York Times : 

Notice. — Travelers intending to embark on the At- 
lantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists be- 
tween Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her 
allies; that the zone of war includes the water adjacent 
to the British Isles ; that in accordance with formal notice 
given by the Imperial German government, vessels flying 
the flag of Great Britain or any of her allies are liable to 
destruction in these waters and that travelers sailing in 
the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so 
at their own risk. 

Imperial German Embassy. 

Washington, D. C, April 22, 1915. 

The impertinence of the notice irritated Americans 
throughout the country. Because numbers of Americans 
were accustomed to using the Lusitania, it was not be- 
lieved Germany would dare sink her. The fact of the 
matter was, however, that Germany was not satisfied 
with the results of propaganda in this country. 

Preparations for the attack of the Lusitania went 
forward without delay, following the publication of Ger- 
many's warning. Two submarines were assigned to lie 
in waiting near the entrance to St. George's channel. 
At about the same time these U-boats took position, the 
Lusitania was being towed out of her pier in the Hudson 
Biver, 



192 WOODROW WILSON 

Among the passengers were Alfred Gwynn Vander- 
bilt, Charles Frohman, theatrical manager ; Charles Klein, 
dramatist; Justice Miles Forman, author; and Elbert 
Hubbard, prominent in literary circles as an iconoclastic 
writer. 

Mr. Hubbard, who had attracted the attention of 
notorious pro-Germans in the United States by his fiery 
denouncement of the German policy in Belgium, was ap- 
proached by a newspaper man on the dock before the ship 
sailed. He was asked what his mission was in going 
abroad. 

"I go to obtain a personal interview with Bill 
Kaiser," answered Mr. Hubbard. 

He was then told that the German submarines might 
sink the ship. 

"In that event, I'll see him in hell," replied Mr. 
Hubbard. 

The Lusitania carried 1,254 passengers and a crew 
of 800. On board were two German agents who had 
planted bombs abroad and prepared to flash signals to 
the submarines which were lying in waiting. 

On May 7th, Captain Turner addressed a wireless to 
the British Admiralty office requesting instructions. He 
was then near the Irish coast. The reply he received was : 

"Proceed to a point ten miles south of the Old Head 
of Kinsale and then run into St. George 's channel, arriv- 
ing at the Liverpool bar at midnight. ' ' 

That message was sent from the German-owned sta- 
tion at Sayville. The real order from the British Admi- 
ralty was for the Lusitania to proceed eighty miles south 
of the Old Head of Kinsale. The message never was 
received. German agents in England had seen to that. 

Captain Turner of the Lusitania, as might be ex- 
pected, followed the instructions he received. The ship's 
course was headed direct to the northeast. At 2 :20 p. m. 
she sighted two submarines, one on each side and about 
half a mile from the ship. There was no preliminary 



WOODROW WILSON 193 

warning; no command for the vessel to stop, no oppor- 
tunity for the passengers or crew to take to the lifeboats. 
Each submarine loosed a torpedo. One found its mark. 
There was a muffled explosion, that of the torpedo, fol- 
lowed by detonations as the German planted bombs ex- 
ploded, and the liner began to settle in the water. 

Many were killed or injured by the explosions. Some 
few boats were launched before the liner lost headway, 
but were capsized. Out of the ship 's company, 1,214 went 
to their deaths. They included men, women and children. 
The prominent Americans on board were among those 
drowned. As the ship was settling, Mr. Frohman with 
characteristic philosophy said, " Death is the most beau- 
tiful adventure in life. ' ' 

Wireless calls for help were sent at once by the Lusi- 
tania. The call was picked up by the Etonian, commanded 
by Captain Wood. An indication of how well the German 
plans were laid can be seen in his statement : 

"It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, May 7th, that we 
received the wireless S. 0. S. I was then forty-two miles 
distant from the position he gave me. The Narragansett 
and the City of Exeter were nearer to the Lusitania, and 
they answered the call. At 5 o'clock I observed the City 
of Exeter cross our bow and she signaled, 'Have you 
heard anything of the disaster?' 

"At that moment I saw a periscope of a submarine 
between my ship and the City of Exeter, about a quarter 
of a mile directly ahead of us. She dived as soon as she 
saw us. I signaled to the engine room for every available 
inch of speed. Then we saw the submarine come up astern 
of us. The periscope remained in sight about twenty 
minutes. No sooner had we lost sight of the one astern 
than another appeared on the starboard bow. I swung 
hard away from him and about eight minutes later he 
submerged. 

"The Narragansett, as soon as she heard the S. 0. S. 
call, went to the assistance of the Lusitania. One of the 



194 WOODROW WILSON 

submarines discharged a torpedo at her and missed by not 
more than eight feet. The Narragansett then warned us 
not to attempt to go to the rescue, as we would be sunk if 
we did." 

The German government defended the destruction 
of the liner on the ground that it was armed and was 
carrying ammunition. Dudley Field Malone, collector 
at the port of New York, denied the charges and stated 
that there was no armament aboard. He said: 

"This report is not correct. The Lusitania was in- 
spected by me personally before sailing. No guns were 
found mounted or unmounted. No merchant ship would 
be allowed to arm in this port." 

Former President Roosevelt refused to couch his 
statement in guarded language. 

"This represents not merely piracy but piracy on a 
vaster scale of murder than old-time pirates ever prac- 
ticed," he said. "This is the warfare which destroyed 
Louvain and Dinant and hundreds of men, women and 
children in Belgium. It is a warfare against innocent 
men, women and children traveling on the ocean and our 
own fellow-countrymen and country-women who were 
among the sufferers. 

"It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from 
taking action in this matter, for we owe it not only to 
humanity, but to our national self-respect." 

The coroner's jury which investigated the tragedy 
at Kinsale, Ireland, formally charged the officers of the 
submarine and the Kaiser with murder. 

Insight upon the state of mind in Germany is given 
by the presence in many collections of war souvenirs of 
medals struck by the Berlin government to commemorate 
the Lusitania "victory." The day the news reached 
Berlin was immediately proclaimed a holiday, and given 
over to rejoicing. The Lusitania "victory" was" accepted 
by the German empire as the first crack in the sea power 
of Great Britain. 






WOODROW WILSON 195 

President Wilson immediately drew up a note ad- 
dressed to the German government protesting against the 
outrage. It was sent on May 13, 1915, and read as follows : 

"Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and 
after reading to him this communication leave with him a 
copy. 

' ' In view of recent acts of the German authorities in 
violation of American rights on the high seas which culmi- 
nated in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steam- 
ship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which over 100 
American citizens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and 
desirable that the Government of the United States and 
the Imperial German Government should come to a clear 
and full understanding as to the grave situation which 
has resulted. 

"The sinking of the British passenger steamer 
Falaba by a German submarine on March 28, through 
which Leon C. Thrasher, an American citizen, was 
drowned ; the attack on April 28 on the American vessel 
Cushing by a German aeroplane ; the torpedoing on May 1 
of the American vessel Gulfhght by a German submarine, 
as a result of which two or more American citizens met 
their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and sinking of 
the steamship Lusitania, constitute a series of events 
which the Government of the United States has observed 
with growing concern, distress, and amazement. 

1 * Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hith- 
erto assumed by the Imperial German Government in mat- 
ters of international right, and particularly with regard 
to the freedom of the seas ; having learned to recognize the 
German views and the German influence in the field of 
international obligation as always engaged upon the side 
of justice and humanity; and having understood the in- 
structions of the Imperial German Government to its 
naval commanders to be upon the same plane of humane 
action prescribed by the naval codes of other nations, 
the Government of the United States was loath to believe 



196 WOODROW WILSON 

— it cannot now bring itself to believe — that these acts, 
so absoluely contrary to the rules, the practices, and the 
spirit of modern warfare, could have the countenance or 
sanction of that great Government. It feels it to be its 
duty, therefore, to address the Imperial German Govern- 
ment concerning them with the utmost frankness and in 
the earnest hope that it is not mistaken in expecting action 
on the part of the Imperial German Government which 
will correct the unfortunate impressions which have been 
created and vindicate once more the position of that Gov- 
ernment with regard to the sacred freedom of the seas. 
"The Government of the United States has been ap- 
prised that the Imperial German Government considered 
themselves to be obliged by the extraordinary circum- 
stances of the present war and the measures adopted by 
their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all 
commerce, to adopt methods of retaliation which go much 
beyond the ordinary methods of warfare at sea, in the 
proclamation of a war zone from which they have warned 
neutral ships to keep away. This Government has al- 
ready taken occasion to inform the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment that it cannot admit the adoption of such meas- 
ures or such a warning of danger to operate as in any 
degree an abbreviation of the rights of American ship- 
masters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands 
as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nation- 
ality; and that it must hold the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to a strict accountability for any infringement 
of those rights, intentional or incidental. It does not un- 
derstand the Imperial German Government to question 
those rights. It assumes, on the contrary, that the Im- 
perial Government accept, as of course, the rule that the 
lives of noncombatants, whether they be of neutral citi- 
zenship or citizens of one of the nations at war, cannot 
lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or 
destruction of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize 
also, as all other nations do, the obligation to take the 



WOODROW WILSON 197 

usual precaution of visit and search to ascertain whether 
a suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent nation- 
ality or is in fact carrying contraband of war under a 
neutral flag. 

"The Government of the United States, therefore, 
desires to call the attention of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment with the utmost earnestness to the fact that the 
objection to their present method of attack against the 
trade of their enemies lies in the practical impossibility 
of employing submarines in the destruction of commerce 
without disregarding those rules of fairness, reason, jus- 
tice, and humanity, which all modern opinion regards as 
imperative. It is practically impossible for the officers of 
a submarine to visit a merchantman at sea and examine 
her papers and cargo. It is practically impossible for 
them to make a prize of her; and, if they cannot put a 
prize crew on board of her, they cannot sink her without 
leaving her crew and all on board of her to the mercy of 
the sea in her small boats. These facts it is understood 
the Imperial German Government frankly admit. "We are 
informed that in the instances of which we have spoken 
time enough for even that poor measure of safety was 
not given, and in at least two cases cited not so much 
as a warning was received. Manifestly submarines can- 
not be used against merchantmen, as the last few weeks 
have shown, without an inevitable violation of many 
sacred principles of justice and humanity. 

"American citizens act within their indisputable 
rights in taking their ships and in traveling wherever 
their legitimate business calls them upon the high seas, 
and exercise those rights in what should be the well-justi- 
fied confidence that their lives will not be endangered by 
acts done in clear violation of universally acknowledged 
international obligations, and certainly in the confidence 
that their own Government will sustain them in the 
exercise of their rights. 

"There was recently published in the newspapers of 



198 WOODROW WILSON 

the United States, I regret to inform the Imperial German 
Government, a formal warning, purporting to come from 
the Imperial German Embassy at Washington, addressed 
to the people of the United States, and stating, in effect, 
that any citizen of the United States who exercised his 
right of free travel upon the seas would do so at his peril 
if his journey should take him within the zones of waters 
within which the Imperial German Navy was using sub- 
marines against the commerce of Great Britain and 
France, notwithstanding the respectful but very earnest 
protest of his Government, the Government of the United 
States. I do not refer to this for the purpose of calling 
the attention of the Imperial German Government at this 
time to the surprising irregularity of a communication 
from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington ad- 
dressed to the people of the United States through the 
newspapers, but only for the purpose of pointing out that 
no warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be 
committed can possibly be accepted as an excuse or pallia- 
tion for that act or as an abatement of the responsibility 
for its commission. 

"Long acquainted as this Government has been with 
the character of the Imperial German Government and 
with the high principles of equity by which they have 
in the past been actuated and guided, the Government of 
the United States cannot believe that the commanders 
of the vessels which committed these acts of lawlessness 
did so except under a misapprehension of the orders 
issued by the Imperial German naval authorities. It takes 
it for granted that, at least within the practical possibil- 
ities of every such case, the commanders even of sub- 
marines were expected to do nothing that would involve 
the lives of noncombatants or the safety of neutral ships, 
even at the cost of failing of their object of capture or 
destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the 
Imperial German Government will disavow the acts of 
which the Government of the United States complains, 



WOODROW WILSON 199 

that they will make reparation so far as reparation is pos- 
sible for injuries which are without measure, and that 
they will take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence 
of anything so obviously subversive of the principles of 
warfare for which the Imperial German Government have 
in the past so wisely and so firmly contended. 

"The Government and the people of the United 
States look to the Imperial German Government for just, 
prompt, and enlightened action in this vital matter with 
the greater confidence because the United States and Ger- 
many are bound together not only by special ties of friend- 
ship but also by the explicit stipulations of the treaty of 
1828 between the United States and the Kingdom of 
Prussia. 

"Expressions of regret and offers of reparation in 
case of the destruction of neutral ships sunk by mistake, 
while they may satisfy international obligations, if no loss 
of life results, cannot justify or excuse a practice, the 
natural and necessary effect of which is to subject neutral 
nations and neutral persons to new and immeasurable 
risks. 

"The Imperial German Government will not expect 
the Government of the United States to omit any word or 
any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty 
of maintaining the rights of the United States and its 
citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and 
enjoyment." 

The German reply was received on May 28th and set 
up as a defense the fact that the Lusitania was armed. 
Inasmuch as the custom authorities at New York had 
denied the statement when first made, President Wilson 
found the answer unsatisfactory and signified his inten- 
tion to the cabinet of forcing the German government 
to make a satisfactory explanation. 

Unwilling to sign the forthcoming note to Berlin 
which he feared might precipitate war between the United 
States and Germany, Secretary of State Bryan resigned. 



200 WOODROW WILSON 

With the President and an overwhelming majority 
of the cabinet opposed to his views, he struggled in vain 
to effect a material modification of the rejoinder to the 
German reply to the Lusitania note. 

The cabinet decided to stand by the President in 
dispatching to Berlin a note, not only firmly insisting upon 
the American demands, but requiring a categorical dec- 
laration of intention in regard to compliance with inter- 
national law. 

As soon as this decision was reached, Mr. Bryan 
offered his resignation to the President, the relinquish- 
ment of the office to take effect when the rejoinder was 
sent to Berlin. Shortly after the cabinet meeting ad- 
journed, President Wilson wrote his acceptance of the 
resignation. The correspondence was made public at the 
White House the same evening. 

Originally it was the intention of the President and 
Mr. Bryan to have the announcement of the resignation 
made simultaneously with the dispatch of the note to Ger- 
many, but when Mr. Bryan did not attend the cabinet 
meeting until President Wilson sent for him, the President 
took matters into his own hands. 

The real disagreement dated back to the famous ses- 
sion of the cabinet when the note of May 13th, following 
the sinking of the Lusitania was drafted, informing Ger- 
many that the United States would not omit ' ' any word or 
any act" to protect its rights. 

At that time Mr. Bryan made a speech counseling 
peaceful measures and cautious action. He gave his con- 
sent to signing the note only after it was tentatively 
arranged that a statement should be transmitted to the 
German government, and announcing that inasmuch as 
Germany had accepted the principle of the peace treaties 
negotiated between the United States and other countries, 
differences between the two nations might be adjusted by 
a commission of investigation. 

This was opposed by some members of the cabinet as 




KING GEORGE AND FIELD MARSHAL 
SIR DOUGLAS HAIG 



WOODROW WILSON 205 

weakening the position of the United States, and in the 
last hour before the note was sent, President Wilson ruled 
against Mr. Bryan's suggestion. 

The action of Mr. Bryan did not swerve the President 
and his advisers from the course in the controversy with 
Germany they decided upon a week prior and reindorsed 
at the cabinet meeting on two subsequent occasions. 

The note to which Mr. Bryan could not bring himself 
to affix his signature was signed by Eobert Lansing, the 
counselor of the State Department, who automatically 
became acting Secretary of State when Mr. Bryan's res- 
ignation went into effect. 

In refusing to make concessions to Bryan's view that 
the rejoinder to be sent to Germany was too militant and 
uncompromising, the President did not concede that war 
was likely. He believed that Germany would yield assur- 
ances to respect American rights, and even if Berlin 
rejected the American demands, war would not be the 
inevitable result. 

With the exception of Mr. Bryan, the members of the 
cabinet shared the confidence of the President in this 
respect. They relied upon assurances of the peaceful 
outcome of the controversy which the President had given 
them ever since he talked with Count von Bernstorff , the 
German ambassador, a week before. 

Mr. Bryan signed the note of May 13th, although 
he was not in thorough accord with the President 's policy 
at that time. The refusal of the Secretary of State to 
sign the rejoinder, therefore, gave rise to erroneous sus- 
picions that the note was actually militant in tone. 

Apprehension of the tenor of the rejoinder was deep- 
ened, however, by the reference to the note Mr. Bryan 
made in his letter of resignation. The most portentous 
sentence in his letter follows : 

"Obedient to your sense of duty and actuated by the 
highest motives, you have prepared for transmission to 
the German government a note in which I cannot join 



206 WOODROW WILSON 

without violating what I deem to be an obligation to my 
country, and the issue involved is of such moment, that 
to remain a member of the cabinet would be as unfair to 
you as it would be to the cause which is nearest my heart — 
namely, the prevention of war. ' ' 

There was no gainsaying the fact that Mr. Bryan 
feared the policy enunciated in the rejoinder would result 
in war with Germany. He had read the note and that was 
his verdict. 

Mr. Bryan held that the President was taking too 
uncompromising and unyielding a stand in proclaiming 
that submarines must comply with the rule of visit and 
search in making war on merchant vessels. In his letter 
of resignation he said: " Alike desirous of reaching a 
peaceful solution of the problems arising out of the use 
of submarines against merchantmen, we find ourselves 
differing irreconcilably as to the methods which should be 
employed." 

Mr. Bryan disclosed the conviction that the intro- 
duction of the submarine had produced problems which 
were not satisfactorily solved by the application of exist- 
ing rules of international law. 

The president held that, although the methods of war 
had changed, the rules of war had not been altered, and 
would have to be complied with implicitly. He held that 
international law afforded the only protection of neutral 
rights and the only guidance in confronting danger upon 
which neutrals could rely. Unless international law was 
observed, according to the President, neutrals would not 
know what course to pursue. 

Mr. Bryan held that whether submarines were to be 
required to comply with the existing rules of international 
law was a question which would have to be determined 
by agreement among the nations. 

The President selected Robert Lansing as successor 
to Mi. Bryan. Mr. Lansing had collaborated with the 
President on the production of all of the notes addressed 



WOODROW WILSON 207 

to the belligerents in the European war. It had been 
the practice of the President to advise with Mr. Lansing 
upon the question of international law involved and then 
to determine the policy of the administration. Bryan had 
little to do with shaping these policies or with the dispatch 
of diplomatic notes, except the attachment of his signature 
as Secretary of State. 



CHAPTER XIII 
GERMANY CALLED TO ACCOUNT. 

On June 9th, the clay Bryan resigned from the cabinet, 
President Wilson forwarded to the German government 
the second note on the Lusitania outrage. It follows : 

"You are instructed to deliver textually the follow- 
ing note to the Minister of Foreign Affairs : 

"In compliance with Your Excellency's request I did 
not fail to transmit to my Government immediately upon 
their receipt your note of May 28 in reply to my note of 
May 15, and your supplementary note of June 1, setting 
forth the conclusions so far as reached by the Imperial 
German Government concerning the attacks on the Ameri- 
can steamers Cushing and Gulflight. I am now instructed 
by my Government to communicate the following reply : 

"The Government of the United States notes with 
gratification the full recognition by the Imperial German 
Government, in discussing the cases of the Cushing and 
the Gulflight, of the principle of the freedom of all parts 
of the open sea to neutral ships and the frank willingness 
of the Imperial German Government to acknowledge and 
meet its liability where the fact of attack upon neutral 
ships 'which have not been guilty of any hostile act' by 
German air craft or vessels of war is satisfactorily estab- 
lished ; and the Government of the United States will in 
due course lay before the Imperial German Government, 
as it requests, full information concerning the attack on 
the steamer Cushing. 

"With regard to the sinking of the steamer Falaba, 
by which an American citizen lost his life, the Govern- 
ment of the United States is surprised to find the Imperial 
German Government contending that an effort on the part 

208 






WOODROW WILSON 209 

of a merchantman to escape capture and secure assist- 
ance alters the obligation of the officer seeking to make 
the capture in respect of the safety of the lives of those 
on board the merchantman, although the vessel had ceased 
her attempt to escape when torpedoed. These are not 
new circumstances. They have been in the minds of 
statesmen and of international jurists throughout the de- 
velopment of naval warfare, and the Government of the 
United States does not understand that they have ever 
been held to alter the principles of humanity upon which 
it has insisted. Nothing but actual forcible resistance or 
continued efforts to escape by flight when ordered to stop 
for the purpose of visit on the part of the merchantman 
has ever been held to forfeit the lives of her passengers 
or crew. The Government of the United States, however, 
does not understand that the Imperial German Govern- 
ment is seeking in this case to relieve itself of liability, 
but only intends to set forth the circumstances which led 
the commander of the submarine to allow himself to be 
hurried into the course which he took. 

"Your Excellency's note, in discussing the loss of 
American lives resulting from the sinking of the steam- 
ship Lusitania, adverts at some length to certain informa- 
tion which the Imperial German Government has received 
with regard to the character and outfit of that vessel, and 
Your Excellency expresses the fear that this information 
may not have been brought to the attention of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States. It is stated in the note that 
the Lusitania was undoubtedly equipped with masked 
guns, supplied with trained gunners and special ammuni- 
tion, transporting troops from Canada, carrying a cargo 
not permitted under the laws of the United States to a 
vessel also carrying passengers, and serving, in virtual 
effect, as an auxiliary to the naval forces of Great Britain. 
Fortunately, these are matters concerning which the Gov- 
ernment of the United States is in a position to give the 
Imperial German Government official information. Of 



210 WOODROW WILSON 

the facts alleged in Your Excellency's note, if true, the 
Government of the United States would have been bound 
to take official cognizance in performing its recognized 
duty as a neutral power and in enforcing its national 
laws. It was its duty to see to it that the Lusitania was 
not armed for offensive action, that she was not serving as 
a transport, that she did not carry a cargo prohibited by 
the statutes of the United States, and that, if in fact she 
was a naval vessel of Great Britain, she should not receive 
clearance as a merchantman ; and it performed that duty 
and enforced its statutes with scrupulous vigilance 
through its regularly constituted officials. It is able, 
therefore, to assure the Imperial German Government 
that it has been misinformed. If the Imperial German 
Government should deem itself to be in possession of con- 
vincing evidence that the officials of the Government of 
the United States did not perform these duties with thor- 
oughness, the Government of the United States sincerely 
hopes that it will submit that evidence for consideration. 

"Whatever may be the contentions of the Imperial 
German Government regarding the carriage of contra- 
band of war on board the Lusitania or regarding the ex- 
plosion of that material by the torpedo, it need only be 
said that in the view of this Government these contentions 
are irrelevant to the question of the legality of the meth- 
ods used by the German naval authorities in sinking the 
vessel. 

"But the sinking of passenger ships involves prin- 
ciples of humanity which throw into the background any 
special circumstances of detail that may be thought to 
affect the cases, principles which lift it, as the Imperial 
German Government will no doubt be quick to recognize 
and acknowledge, out of the class of ordinary subjects of 
diplomatic discussion or of international controversy. 
Whatever be the other facts regarding the Lusitania, the 
principal fact is that a great steamer, primarily and 
chiefly a conveyance for passengers, and carrying more 



WOODROW WILSON 211 

than a thousand souls who had no part or lot in the con- 
duct of the war, was torpedoed and sunk without so much 
as a challenge or a warning, and that men, women, and chil- 
dren were sent to their death in circumstances unparal- 
leled in modern warfare. The fact that more than one 
hundred American citizens were among those who per- 
ished made it the duty of the Government of the United 
States to speak of these things and once more, with solemn 
emphasis, to call the attention of the Imperial German 
Government to the grave responsibility which the Gov- 
ernment of the United States conceives that it has in- 
curred in this tragic occurrence, and to the indisputable 
principle upon which that responsibility rests. The Gov- 
ernment of the United States is contending for something 
much greater than mere rights of property or privileges 
of commerce. It is contending for nothing less high and 
sacred than the rights of humanity, which every Govern- 
ment honors itself in respecting and which no Govern- 
ment is justified in resigning on behalf of those under its 
care and authority. Only her actual resistance to capture 
or refusal to stop when ordered to do so for the purpose 
of visit could have afforded the commander of the sub- 
marine any justification for so much as putting the lives 
of those on board the ship in jeopardy. This principle the 
Government of the United States understands the explicit 
instructions issued on August 3, 1914, by the Imperial 
German Admiralty to its commanders at sea to have 
recognized and embodied as do the naval codes of all other 
nations, and upon it every traveler and seaman had a right 
to depend. It is upon this principle of humanity as well 
as upon the law founded upon this principle that the 
United States must stand. 

"The Government of the United States is happy to 
observe that Your Excellency's note closes with the in- 
timation that the Imperial German Government is willing, 
now as before, to accept the good offices of the United 
States in an attempt to come to an understanding with the 



212 WOODROW WILSON 

Government of Great Britain by which the character and 
conditions of the war upon the sea may be changed. The 
Government of the United States would consider it a priv- 
ilege thus to serve its friends and the world. It stands 
ready at any time to convey to either Government any 
intimation or suggestion the other may be willing to have 
it convey and cordially invites the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment to make use of its services in this way at its con- 
venience. The wdiole world is concerned in anything that 
may bring about even a partial accommodation of inter- 
ests or in any way mitigate the terrors of the present dis- 
tressing conflict. 

"In the meantime, whatever arrangement may hap- 
pily be made between the parties to the war, and whatever 
may in the opinion of the Imperial German Government 
have been the provocation or the circumstantial justifica- 
tion for the past acts of its commanders at sea, the Gov- 
ernment of the United States confidently looks to see the 
justice and humanity of the Government of Germany 
vindicated in all cases where Americans have been 
wronged or their rights as neutrals invaded. 

"The Government of the United States therefore 
very earnestly and very solemnly renews the represen- 
tations of its note transmitted to the Imperial German 
Government on the 15th of May, and relies in these rep- 
resentations upon the principles of humanity, the univer- 
sally recognized understandings of international law, and 
the ancient friendship of the German nation. 

' ' The Government of the United States cannot admit 
that the proclamation of a war zone -from which neutral 
ships have been warned to keep away may be made to 
operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights 
either of American shipmasters or of American citizens 
bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant ships 
of belligerent nationality. It does not understand the 
Imperial German Government to question those rights. 
It understands it, also, to accept as established beyond 



WOODROW WILSON 213 

question the principle that the lives of noncombatants 
cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the 
capture or destruction of an unresisting merchantman, 
and to recognize the obligation to take sufficient precau- 
tion to ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in 
fact of belligerent nationality or is in fact carrying con- 
traband of war under a neutral flag. The Government of 
the United States therefore deems it reasonable to expect 
that the Imperial German Government will adopt the 
measures necessary to put these principles into practice 
in respect of the safeguarding of American lives and 
American ships, and asks for assurances that this will 
be done." 

Germany took time in preparing a reply to this sec- 
ond note. When it was received by the State Department 
on July 8, 1915, it was found altogether unsatisfactory. 
It offered to grant immunity to American passenger liners 
but carefully avoided a direct statement on its policy to- 
ward the British ships on which Americans were accus- 
tomed to travel. On the 21st, the final note on the Lusi- 
tania was sent to Germany. It read : 

"You are instructed to deliver textually the follow- 
ing note to the Minister of Foreign Affairs : 

"The note of the Imperial German Government, 
dated the 8th of July, 1915, has received the careful con- 
sideration of the Government of the United States, and it 
regrets to be obliged to say that it has found it very un- 
satisfactory, because it fails to meet the real differences 
between the two Governments and indicates no way in 
which the accepted principles of law and humanity may 
be applied in the grave matter in controversy, but pro- 
poses, on the contrary, arrangements for a partial sus- 
pension of those principles which virtually set them aside. 

"The Government of the United States notes with 
satisfaction that the Imperial German Government rec- 
ognizes without reservation the validity of the principles 
insisted on in the several communications which this 



214 WOODROW WILSON 

Government has addressed to the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment with regard to its announcement of a war zone 
and the use of submarines against merchantmen on the 
high seas — the principle that the high seas are free, that 
the character and cargo of a merchantman must first be 
ascertained before she can lawfully be seized or destroyed, 
and that the lives of noncombatants may in no case be put 
in jeopardy unless the vessel resists or seeks to escape 
after being summoned to submit to examination; for a 
belligerent act of retaliation is per se an act beyond the 
law, and the defense of an act as retaliatory is an admis- 
sion that it is illegal. 

"The Government of the United States is, however, 
keenly disappointed to find that the Imperial German 
Government regards itself as in large degree exempt 
from the obligation to observe these principles, even 
where neutral vessels are concerned, by what it believes 
the policy and practice of the Government of Great Brit- 
ain to be in the present war with regard to neutral com- 
merce. The Imperial German Government will readily 
understand that the Government of the United States can 
not discuss the policy of the Government of Great Britain 
with regard to neutral trade except with that Government 
itself, and that it must regard the conduct of other bellig- 
erent governments as irrelevant to any discussion with 
the Imperial German Government of what this Govern- 
ment regards as grave and unjustifiable violations of the 
rights of American citizens by German naval command- 
ers. Illegal and inhuman acts, however justifiable they 
may be thought to be against an enemy who is believed 
to have acted in contravention of law and humanity, are 
manifestly indefensible when they deprive neutrals of 
their acknowledged rights, particularly when they violate 
the right to life itself. If a belligerent can not retaliate 
against an enemy without injuring the lives of neutrals, 
as well as their property, humanity, as well as justice and 
a due regard for the dignity of neutral powers, should 



WOODROW WILSON 215 

dictate that the practice be discontinued. If persisted 
in it would in such circumstances constitute an unpardon- 
able offense against the sovereignty of the neutral nation 
affected. The Government of the United States is not 
unmindful of the extraordinary conditions created by this 
war or of the radical alterations of circumstance and 
method of attack produced by the use of instrumentalities 
of naval warfare which the nations of the world can not 
have had in view when the existing rules of international 
law were formulated, and it is ready to make every rea- 
sonable allowance for these novel and unexpected aspects 
of war at sea ; but it can not consent to abate any essen- 
tial or fundamental right of its people because of a mere 
alteration of circumstance. The rights of neutrals in 
time of war are based upon principle, not upon expedi- 
ency, and the principles are immutable. It is the duty 
and obligation of belligerents to find a way to adapt the 
new circumstances to them. 

"The events of the past two months have clearly indi- 
cated that it is possible and practicable to conduct such 
submarine operations as have characterized the activity 
of the Imperial German Navy within the so-called war 
zone in substantial accord with the accepted practices of 
regulated warfare. The whole world has looked with 
interest and increasing satisfaction at the demonstration 
of that possibility by German naval commanders. It is 
manifestly possible, therefore, to lift the whole practice 
of submarine attack above the criticism which it has 
aroused and remove the chief causes of offense. 

"In view of the admission of illegality made by the 
Imperial Government when it pleaded the right of retal- 
iation in defense of its acts, and in view of the manifest 
possibility of conforming to the established rules of naval 
warfare, the Government of the United States can not 
believe that the Imperial Government will longer refrain 
from disavowing the wanton act of its naval commander 
in sinking the Lusitania or from offering reparation for 



216 WOODROW WILSON 

the American lives lost, so far as reparation can be made 
for a needless destruction of human life by an illegal act. 

1 ' The Government of the United States, while not in- 
different to the friendly spirit in which it is made, can not 
accept the suggestion of the Imperial German Govern- 
ment that certain vessels be designated and agreed upon 
which shall be free on the seas now illegally proscribed. 
The very agreement would, by implication, subject other 
vessels to illegal attack and would be a curtailment and 
therefore an abandonment of the principles for which this 
Government contends and which in times for calmer coun- 
sels every nation would concede as of course. 

"The Government of the United States and the Im- 
perial German Government are contending for the same 
great object, have long stood together in urging the very 
principles, upon which the Government of the United 
States now so solemnly insists. They are both contend- 
ing for the freedom of the seas. The Government of the 
United States will continue to contend for that freedom, 
from whatever quarter violated, without compromise and 
at any cost. It invites the practical co-operation of the 
Imperial German Government at this time when co-oper- 
ation may accomplish most and this great common object 
be most strikingly and effectively achieved. 

"The Imperial German Government expresses the 
hope that this object may be in some measure accom- 
plished even before the present war ends. It can be. The 
Government of the United States not only feels obliged to 
insist upon it, by whomsoever violated or ignored, in the 
protection of its own citizens, but is also deeply interested 
in seeing it made practicable between the belligerents 
themselves, and holds itself ready at any time to act as 
the common friend who may be privileged to suggest a 
way. 

' ' In the meantime the very value which this Govern- 
ment sets upon the long and unbroken friendship between 
the people and Government of the United States and the 



WOODROW WILSON 217 

people and Government of the German nation impels it to 
press very solemnly upon the Imperial German Govern- 
ment the necessity for a scrupulous observance of neutral 
rights in this critical matter. Friendship itself prompts 
it to say to the Imperial Government that repetition by 
the commanders of German naval vessels of acts in con- 
travention of those rights must be regarded by the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, when they affect American 
citizens, as deliberately unfriendly." 

The concluding clause in this message brought the 
German government to the realization that President 
Wilson was fast losing patience with the submarine con- 
troversy. Its reply was entirely satisfactory and guar- 
anteed the rights of American citizens at sea from that 
time on. Another controversy ensued when the White 
Star liner Arabic was sunk on August 19, 1915, with loss 
of American lives. This resulted in the German govern- 
ment notifying President Wilson that "liners would not 
be sunk without warning and without insuring the safety 
of noncombatants, provided that the liners did not try 
to escape or offer resistance." 

In the midst of these trying events, Romance once 
more entered the life of the President. It was announced 
at the White House on October 6th, that Mrs. Norman 
Gait of Washington was engaged to marry President 
Woodrow Wilson. The plans for the marriage were 
shrouded in secrecy. According to the friends of Mr. 
Wilson and Mrs. Gait, however, the wedding was to take 
place before the end of the year. 

The announcement that the President was to remarry 
created a sensational surprise at the capital, although 
President Wilson and Mrs. Gait had appeared together 
occasionally in public during the preceding months, and it 
was known that the charming widow was a frequent guest 
at the White House. 

According to the most reliable information obtain- 
able, the President and Mrs. Gait were engaged for ten 



218 WOODROW WILSON 

days prior to the announcement. The facts were a closely 
guarded secret in the family circle and few of the Presi- 
dent's closest official associates were aware of the prog- 
ress of the romance. 

Mrs. Gait met President Wilson for the first time a 
few months after the death of Mrs. Wilson in August, 
1914. It was not until the following spring, however, 
that he began to evince a more than casual interest in Mrs. 
Gait, who was frequently a guest of his daughter, Mar- 
garet, and his cousin, Miss Helen Woodrow Bones. 

Dr. Cary Grayson, the President's aid and physician, 
was the means of bringing the President and Mrs. Gait 
together. It was Miss Bones, who had made her home 
with the President 's family for several years, who really 
fostered the romance. 

Dr. Grayson met Mrs. Gait through Miss Gertrude 
Gordon of Washington. Miss Gordon was the daughter 
of General Gordon, who, upon the death of her father 
several years ago, contested his will and obtained 
from the court a large sum of money. At that time Miss 
Gordon applied to the court to have Mrs. Gait appointed 
as her guardian. Mrs. Gait had acted in that capacity 
and traveled extensively with her. 

Miss Bones, while convalescing from an illness due 
to close confinement while taking care of Mrs. Wilson, 
was ordered by Dr. Grayson to take a long walk every 
day, and as she found it too lonesome, he introduced her 
to Mrs. Gait, who was a very enthusiastic pedestrian. 

Mrs. Gait and Miss Bones, being together so much, 
became inseparable companions, and Mrs. Gait became a 
frequent guest at the White House, at first for luncheons 
at which the President was always present when in Wash- 
ington. Later she spent many evenings there. 

In the late spring Mrs. Gait frequently was seen in 
the White House automobile when the President was tak- 
ing his daily drive. She and Miss Bones frequently 



WOODROW WILSON 219 

accompanied him to the links, where they formed a gal- 
lery and watched him play with Dr. Grayson. 

People at last began to comment on the close intimacy 
between the President and Mrs. Gait, and notice was 
taken of the marked attention paid her when they were 
in public together. 

Mrs. Gait was a beautiful woman of brunette type, 
about forty years of age and came from Virginia. Once 
the President became impressed with her beauty and 
charm, he pressed his suit with all the ardor of a young 
man. 

Later Mrs. Gait went for a visit at Harklakended 
House, the former home of President Wilson at Cornish, 
N. H. The President made two visits to Cornish during 
Mrs. Gait's stay. It was then that friendship began to 
ripen into love. They took long drives together in the 
White House touring car in the beautiful mountain coun- 
try of Vermont and New Hampshire. The President 
abandoned the practice of riding beside the chauffeur, 
but preferred a seat in the tonneau with his daughter 
and Mrs. Gait, finding their literary tastes were a source 
of interest. 

With Mrs. Gait 's departure from the summer White 
House in August, reports that they were engaged took 
shape. These reports were received with the greatest 
interest in official and social circles at the capital, but 
the President's friends refused to discuss the matter in 
any way. 

It was intimated broadly that the President would 
resent any effort to pry into his personal affairs, it being 
pointed out that matters relating solely to his family did 
not concern the public, and he did not intend because of 
his official position to yield any of the privileges of a pri- 
vate citizen in this respect. 

Mrs. Gait was a great favorite. "Loving, charming, 
witty," are the adjectives to which Washington society 



220 WOODROW WILSON 

became accustomed during its association with the name 
of Mrs. Gait. 

They were married December 18th, 1915, at the resi- 
dence of the bride in 20th Street. 

Fewer than forty-eight guests, members of the imme- 
diate families of the bride and bridegroom and two or 
three of their most intimate friends were present. 

The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Herbert 
Scott Smith, who was a student of Dr. Wilson at Wes- 
leyan University, Middleton, Conn., in 1888, and later 
rector of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, of which the 
bride was a communicant. 

The Rev. Dr. Smith broke the stillness by entering 
into the solemn exhortation to the bride and bridegroom 
which precedes the marriage rite proper. The "ring 
service" was used and the word "obey" held its tradi- 
tional place in the holy office. 

The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. James 
H. Taylor, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, 
of which the President was an elder. 

The President and his bride departed the same night 
for Hot Springs, Ark., on the presidential private car. 

They motored to Alexandria, Va., across the Poto- 
mac, to take the train and avoid a crowd at the Union 
station. At the Union station the presidential entrance 
was fully lighted and lines of police were spread all 
about, causing crowds to gather there. 




An Enthusiastic Sportsman; Golf was His Favorite Pastime. 




Marshal Petain, the Defender of Verdun. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE INTERNATIONAL LAWYER. 

President Wilson did not allow his romance to inter- 
fere with the business of the country to the slightest ex- 
tent. Realizing as he did that America was in a most 
delicate position between the charges and countercharges 
of Great Britain and Germany, he kept careful watch on 
foreign developments, at all times prepared to enter the 
diplomatic arena to take up the cause of the United 
States. 

Great Britain was not altogether blameless in the 
difficulties that beset the President's path. American 
ships were stopped on the high seas and conducted into 
British ports where they were subjected to long and irri- 
tating delays. Mails were seized and examined. Several 
cargoes were ordered confiscated as contraband and to all 
these complaints the British government replied with the 
assertion that it was following precedent established by 
the United States during the civil war. 

Notes were sent by the British government on Janu- 
ary 7th, February 10th, June 22nd, July 23rd, July 31st, 
August 2nd, and August 6th, in which Great Britain skil- 
fully evaded a direct answer to the President 's demands. 
The climax came on October 21st when the President, 
aroused by the persistent refusal of the British govern- 
ment to recognize American rights, sent the following 
note to London: 

"I desire that you present a note to Sir Edward 
Grey in the sense of the following : 

1 ' This Government has delayed answering the earlier 
of these notes in the hope that the announced purpose 

225 



226 WOODROW WILSON 

of His Majesty's Government 'to exercise their belliger- 
ent rights with every possible consideration for the inter- 
est of neutrals' and their intention of 'removing all 
causes of avoidable delay in dealing with American car- 
goes ' and of causing 'the least possible amount of incon- 
venience to persons engaged in legitimate trade,' as well 
as their 'assurances to the United States Government 
that they would make it their first aim to minimize the 
inconveniences' resulting from the 'measures taken by 
the Allied Governments,' would in practice not unjusti- 
fiably infringe upon the neutral rights of American citi- 
zens engaged in trade and commerce. It is, therefore, a 
matter of regret that this hope has not been realized, but 
that, on the contrary, interferences with American ships 
and cargoes destined in good faith to neutral ports and 
lawfully entitled to proceed have become increasing vex- 
atious, causing American shipowners and American mer- 
chants to complain to this Government of the failure to 
take steps to prevent an exercise of belligerent power in 
contravention of their just rights. As the measures com- 
plained of proceed directly from orders issued by the 
British Government, are executed by British authorities, 
and arouse a reasonable apprehension that, if not re- 
sisted, they may be carried to an extent even more injuri- 
ous to American interests, this Government directs the 
attention of His Majesty's Government to the following 
considerations : 

[The President here listed a full and complete denial 
of the allegations made by the British. He declared (1) 
that Great Britain had no right to seize ships on suspicion 
and then seek to find incriminating evidence; (2) that it 
was illegal for the British to take a ship into port for 
search when international law clearly provided for search 
at sea; (3) that there was no legal strength in the British 
claims that American procedure in the civil war estab- 
lished a precedent, as there was no similarity between the 
two occasions; (4) that naval experts supported his opin- 



WOODROW WILSON 227 

ions that search at sea could be carried on with greater 
ease than years ago and that Great Britain was wrong 
in her statement that such search was impracticable; (6) 
that the British government was clearly in error when 
it quoted the seizure of the Bermuda during the civil war 
as a similar example of war practice. The note con- 
tinued :] 

"Great Britain cannot expect the United States to 
submit to such manifest injustice or to permit the rights 
of its citizens to be so seriously impaired. . . . When 
goods are clearly intended to become incorporated in the 
mass of merchandise for sale in a neutral country, it is an 
unwarranted and inquisitorial proceeding to detain ship- 
ments for examination as to whether those goods are 
ultimately destined for the enemy's country or use. 
Whatever may be the conjectural conclusions to be drawn 
from trade statistics, which, when stated by value, are of 
uncertain evidence as to quantity, the United States 
maintains the right to sell goods into the general stock of 
a neutral country, and denounces as illegal and unjusti- 
fiable any attempt of a belligerent to interfere with that 
right on the ground that it suspects that the previous 
supply of such goods in the neutral, country, which the 
imports renew or replace, has been sold to an enemy. 
That is a matter with which the neutral vendor has no 
concern and which can in no way affect his rights of trade. 
Moreover, even if goods listed as conditional contraband 
are destined to an enemy country through a neutral coun- 
try, that fact is not in itself sufficient to justify their 
seizure. . . . Relying upon the regard of the British 
Government for the principles of justice so frequently 
and uniformly manifested prior to the present war, this 
Government anticipates that the British Government will 
instruct their officers to refrain from these vexatious and 
illegal practices. . . . 

"The British note of July 23, 1915, appears to con- 
firm the intention indicated in the note of March 15, 1915, 



228 WOODROW WILSON 

to establish a blockade so extensive as to prohibit trade 
with Germany or Austria-Hungary, even through the 
ports of neutral countries adjacent to them. Great Brit- 
ain, however, admits that it should not, and gives assur- 
ances that it will not, interfere with trade with the coun- 
tries contiguous to the territories of the enemies of Great 
Britain. Nevertheless, after over six months ' application 
of the 'blockade' order, the experience of American citi- 
zens has convinced the Government of the United States 
that Great Britain has been unsuccessful in her efforts to 
distinguish between enemy and neutral trade. Arrange- 
ments have been made to create in these neutral countries 
special consignees, or consignment corporations, with 
power to refuse shipments and to determine when the 
state of the country's resources requires the importation 
of new commodities. American commercial interests are 
hampered by the intricacies of these arrangements, and 
many American citizens justly complain that their bona 
fide trade w T ith neutral countries is greatly reduced as a 
consequence, while others assert that their neutral trade, 
which amounted annually to a large sum, has been entirely 
interrupted. . . . 

''"While the United States Government was at first 
inclined to view with leniency the British measures which 
were termed in the correspondence but not in the Order 
in Council of March 11 a 'blockade,' because of the assur- 
ances of the British Government that inconvenience to 
neutral trade would be minimized, this Government is now 
forced to the realization that its expectations were based 
on a misconception of the intentions of the British Gov- 
ernment. ... In the circumstances now developed it 
feels that it can no longer permit the validity of the 
alleged blockade to remain unchallenged. 

"The Declaration of Paris in 1856, which has been 
universally recognized as correctly stating the rule of 
international law as to blockade, expressly declares that 
' blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective ; ' that 



WOODROW WILSON 229 

is to say, maintained by force sufficient really to prevent 
access to the coast of the enemy. . . . 

[President Wilson here quoted in detail evidence 
supporting his contention that the British blockade of the 
German coast was ineffectual and that Germany kept 
ports open for traffic from Norway and Sweden. Pro- 
testing against the blockade of Scandinavian ports, which 
were neutral, the note went on to say:] 

"It is a matter of common knowledge that Great 
Britain exports and re-exports large quantities of mer- 
chandise to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, 
whose ports, so far as American commerce is concerned, 
she regards as blockaded. In fact, the British note of 
August 13 itself indicates that the British exports of 
many articles, such as cotton, lubricating oil, tobacco, 
cocoa, coffee, rice, wheat flour, barley, spices, tea, copra, 
etc., to these countries have greatly exceeded the British 
exports for the corresponding period of 1914. The note 
also shows that there has been an important British trade 
with these countries in many other articles, such as 
machinery, beef, butter, cotton waste, etc. 

"Finally, there is no better settled principle of the 
law of nations than that which forbids the blockade of 
neutral ports in time of war. The Declaration of Lon- 
don, though not regarded as binding upon the signatories 
because not ratified by them, has been expressly adopted 
by the British Government without modification as to 
blockade in the British Order in Council of October 29, 
1914. Article 18 of the Declaration declares specifically 
that ' The blockading forces must not bar access to neutral 
ports or coasts.' 

[The note at this point went into definitions laid 
down by Sir Edward Grey in the opening days of the war 
and quoted authority for the course pursued by the United 
States. It then went on to say:] 

"Without mentioning the other customary elements 
of a regularly imposed blockade, such as notification of 



230 WOODROW WILSON 

the particular coast line invested, the imposition of the 
penalty of confiscation, etc., which are lacking in the pres- 
ent British * blockade' policy, it need only be pointed out 
that, measured by the universally conceded tests above 
set forth, the present British measures cannot be regarded 
as constituting a blockade in law, in practice, or in effect. 

' 'It is incumbent upon the United States Govern- 
ment, therefore, to give the British Government notice 
that the blockade, which they claim to have instituted 
under the Order in Council of March 11, cannot be recog- 
nized as a legal blockade by the United States. 

''Since the Government of Great Britain has laid 
much emphasis on the ruling of the Supreme Court of the 
United States in the Springbok case, that goods of con- 
traband character seized while going to the neutral port 
of Nassau, though actually bound for the blockaded ports 
of the south, were subject to condemnation, it is not inap- 
propriate to direct attention to the British view of this 
case in England prior to the present war, as expressed by 
Sir Edward Grey in his instructions to the British dele- 
gates to the London Conference in 1908 : 

" 'It is exceedingly doubtful whether the decision of 
the Supreme Court was in reality meant to cover a case 
of blockade running in which no question of contraband 
arose. Certainly if such was the intention, the decision 
would pro tanto be in conflict with the practice of British 
courts. His Majesty's Government sees no reason for 
departing from that practice, and you should endeavor 
to obtain general recognition of its correctness. ' 

"It may be pointed out also that the circumstances 
surrounding the Springbok case were essentially differ- 
ent from those of the present day. The ports of the Con- 
federate States were effectively blockaded by the naval 
forces of the United States, though no neutral ports were 
closed, and a continuous voyage through a neutral port 
required an all-sea voyage terminating in an attempt to 
pass the blockading squadron. 



WOODROW WILSON 231 

"They (the cases) result from acts committed by the 
British naval authorities upon the high seas, where the 
jurisdiction over neutral vessels is acquired solely by 
international law. Vessels of foreign nationality, flying a 
neutral flag and finding their protection in the country 
of that flag, are seized without facts warranting a reason- 
able suspicion that they are destined to blockaded ports 
of the enemy or that their cargoes are contraband. The 
officers appear to find their justification in the Orders in 
Council and regulations of the British Government, in 
spite of the fact that in many of the present cases the 
Orders in Council and the regulations are themselves com- 
plained of as contrary to international law. Yet the very 
courts which, it is said, are to dispense justice to dissatis- 
fied claimants are bound by the Orders in Council. . . . 
How can a tribunal fettered by municipal enactments 
declare itself emancipated from their restrictions and at 
liberty to apply the rules of international law with free- 
dom? The very laws and regulations which bind the 
court are now matters of dispute between the Govern- 
ment of the United States and that of His Britannic Maj- 
esty. . . . There is, furthermore, a real and far-reaching 
injury for which prize courts offer no means of repara- 
tion. It is the disastrous effect of the methods of the 
allied Governments upon the general right of the United 
States to enjoy its international trade free from unusual 
and arbitrary limitations imposed by belligerent nations. 
Unwarranted delay and expense in bringing vessels into 
port for search and investigation upon mere suspicion has 
a deterrent effect upon trade ventures, however lawful 
they may be, which cannot be adequately measured in 
damages. . . . 

"There is another ground why American citizens 
cannot submit their wrongs arising out of undue deten- 
tions and seizures to British prize courts for reparation. 
It is the manner in which British courts obtain jurisdic- 
tion of such cases. . . . Municipal regulations in viola- 



232 WOODROW WILSON 

tion of the international rights of another nation cannot 
be extended to the vessels of the latter on the high seas 
so as to justify a belligerent nation bringing them into 
its ports, and, having illegally brought them within its 
territorial jurisdiction, compelling them to submit to the 
domestic laws of that nation. Jurisdiction obtained in 
such a manner is contrary to those principles of justice 
and equality which all nations should respect. . . . The 
Government of the United States has, therefore, viewed 
with surprise and concern the attempt of His Majesty's 
Government to confer upon the British prize courts juris- 
diction by this illegal exercise of force. . . . 

"This Government is advised that vessels and car- 
goes brought in for examination are released only upon 
condition that costs and expenses incurred in the course 
of such unwarranted procedure, such as pilotage, unlading 
costs, etc., be paid by the claimants or on condition that 
they sign a waiver of right to bring claims against the 
British Government for these exactions. This Govern- 
ment is loath to believe that such ungenerous treatment 
will continue to be accorded American citizens by the Gov- 
ernment of His Britannic Majesty, but in order that the 
position of the United States Government may be clearly 
understood, I take this opportunity to inform Your Ex- 
cellency that this Government denies that the charges 
incident to such detentions are rightfully imposed upon 
innocent trade or that any waiver of indemnity exacted 
from American citizens under such conditions of duress 
can preclude them from obtaining redress through diplo- 
matic channels or by whatever other means may be open 
to them. . . . 

"I believe it has been conclusively shown that the 
methods employed by Great Britain to obtain evidence 
of enemy destination of cargoes bound for neutral ports 
and to impose a contraband character upon such cargoes 
are without justification; that the blockade, upon which 
such methods are partly founded, is ineffective, illegal, 



WOODROW WILSON 233 

and indefensible; that the judicial procedure offered as 
a means of reparation for an international injury is in- 
herently defective for the purpose; and that in many 
cases jurisdiction is asserted in violation of the law of 
nations. The United States, therefore, cannot submit 
to the curtailment of its neutral rights by these measures, 
which are admittedly retaliatory, and therefore illegal, 
in conception and in nature, and intended to punish the 
enemies of Great Britain for alleged illegalities on their 
part. The United States might not be in a position to 
object to them if its interests and the interests of all neu- 
trals were unaffected by them, but, being affected, it can- 
not with complacence suffer further subordination of its 
rights to the plea that the exceptional geographic position 
of the enemies of Great Britain require or justify oppres- 
sive and illegal practices. 

"The Government of the United States desires, 
therefore, to impress most earnestly upon His Majesty's 
Government that it must insist that the relations between 
it and His Majesty's Government be governed, not by 
a policy of expediency, but by those established rules of 
international conduct upon which Great Britain in the past 
has held the United States to account when the latter 
nation was a belligerent engaged in a struggle for national 
existence. It is of the highest importance to neutrals not 
only of the present day but of the future that the prin- 
ciples of international right be maintained unimpaired. 

"This task of championing the integrity of neutral 
rights, which have received the sanction of the civilized 
world against the lawless conduct of belligerents arising 
out of the bitterness of the great conflict which is now 
wasting the countries of Europe, the United States un- 
hesitatingly assumes, and to the accomplishment of that 
task it will devote its energies, exercising always that 
impartiality which from the outbreak of the war it has 
sought to exercise in its relations with the warring- 
nations." 



234 WOODROW WILSON 

This masterly attack on the stand taken by British 
statesmen had the effect of silencing once and for all 
the declaration of pro-Germans in the United States that 
the President was abetting England in her defiance of 
American rights. It also resulted in Great Britain re- 
fraining from interference with neutral ships en route to 
Scandinavian ports. 

Public interest in the question had not died out when 
the sinking of the steamer Ancona by an Austrian sub- 
marine in the Mediterranean Sea was announced. Again 
were all eyes turned to the President. His note to the 
Austrian government, sent on December 6th, follows : 

" Please deliver a note to the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, textually as follows : 

"Reliable information obtained from American and 
other survivors who were passengers on the steamship 
Ancona shows that on Nov. 7 a submarine flying the 
Austro-Hungarian flag fired a solid shot toward the steam- 
ship, that thereupon the Ancona attempted to escape, but, 
being overhauled by the submarine, she stopped, that 
after a brief period and before the crew and passengers 
were all able to take to the boats the submarine fired a 
number of shells at the vessel and finally torpedoed and 
sank her while there were yet many persons on board, 
and that by gunfire and foundering of the vessel a large 
number of persons lost their lives or were seriously in- 
jured, among whom were citizens of the United States. 

i 'The public statement of the Austro-Hungarian Ad- 
miralty has been brought to the attention of the Govern- 
ment of the United States and received careful consid- 
eration. This statement substantially confirms the prin- 
cipal declaration of the survivors, as it admits that the 
Ancona, after being shelled, was torpedoed and sunk 
while persons were still on board. 

"The Austro-Hungarian Government has been ad- 
vised, through the correspondence which has passed be- 
tween the United States and Germany, of the attitude of 



WOODROW WILSON 235 

the Government of the United States as to the use of 
submarines in attacking vessels of commence, and the 
acquiescence of Germany in that attitude, yet with full 
knowledge on the part of the Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment of the views of the Government of the United States 
as expressed in no uncertain terms to the ally of Austria- 
Hungary, the commander of the submarine which at- 
tacked the Ancona failed to put in a place of safety the 
crew and passengers of the vessel which they purposed 
to destroy because, it is presumed, of the impossibility 
of taking it into port as a prize of war. 

"The Government of the United States considers 
that the commander violated the principles of interna- 
tional law and of humanity by shelling and torpedoing the 
Ancona before the persons on board had been put in a 
place of safety or even given sufficient time to leave the 
vessel. The conduct of the commander can only be char- 
acterized as wanton slaughter of defenseless noncombat- 
ants, since at the time when the vessel was shelled and 
torpedoed she was not, it appears, resisting or attempting 
to escape, and no other reason is sufficient to excuse such 
an attack, not even the possibility of rescue. 

"The Government of the United States is forced, 
therefore, to conclude either that the commander of the 
submarine acted in violation of his instructions or that 
the Imperial and Royal Government failed to issue in- 
structions to the commanders of its submarines in accord- 
ance with the law of nations and the principles of human- 
ity. The Government of the United States is unwilling 
to believe the latter alternative and to credit the Austro- 
Hungarian Government with an intention to permit its 
submarines to destroy the lives of helpless men, women 
and children. It prefers to believe that the commander 
of the submarine committed this outrage without author- 
ity and contrary to the general or special instructions 
which he had received. 

"As the good relations of the two countries must 



236 WOODROW WILSON 

rest upon a common regard for law and humanity, the 
Government of the United States cannot be expected to 
do otherwise than to demand that the Imperial and Royal 
Government denounce the sinking of the Ancona as an 
illegal and indefensible act; that the officer who perpe- 
trated the deed be punished, and that reparation by the 
payment of an indemnity be made for the citizens of the 
United States who were killed or injured by the attack 
on the vessel. 

' ' The Government of the United States expects that 
the Austro-Hungarian Government, appreciating the 
gravity of the case, will accede to its demand promptly, 
and it rests this expectation on the belief that the Austro- 
Hungarian Government will not sanction or defend an 
act which is condemned by the world as inhuman and 
barbarous, which is abhorrent to all civilized nations, 
and which has caused the death of innocent American 
citizens." 

After much irritating correspondence in which the 
Austrian government evaded the main issue, President 
Wilson demanded that a satisfactory explanation be 
made. This met with prompt response and the President 
was notified that the submarine commander had been 
punished. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE THIRD MESSAGE. 

President Wilson had been talking preparedness for 
some time, and embodied his recommendations in his 
third annual address to Congress which was delivered on 
December 7, 1915. It follows: 

" Gentlemen of the Congress: Since I last had the 
privilege of addressing you on the state of the Union the 
war of nations on the other side of the sea, which had then 
only begun to disclose its portentous proportions, has 
extended its threatening and sinister scope until it has 
swept within its flame some portion of every quarter of 
the globe, not excepting our own hemisphere, has altered 
the whole face of international affairs, and now presents 
a prospect of reorganization and reconstruction such as 
statesmen and peoples have never been called upon to 
attempt before. 

1 'We have stood apart, studiously neutral. It was 
our manifest duty to do so. Not only did we have no 
part or interest in the policies which seem to have brought 
the conflict on; it was necessary, if a universal catas- 
trophe was to be avoided, that a limit should be set to the 
sweep of destructive war and that some part of the great 
family of nations should keep the processes of peace alive, 
if only to prevent collective economic ruin and the break- 
down throughout the world of the industries by which its 
populations are fed and sustained. It was manifestly 
the duty of the self-governed nations of this hemisphere 
to redress, if possible, the balance of economic loss and 
confusion in the other, if they could do nothing more. In 
the day of readjustment and recuperation we earnestly 
hope and believe that they can be of infinite service. 

237 



238 WOODROW WILSON 

"In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not 
only by their separate life and their habitual detachment 
from the politics of Europe but also by a clear perception 
of international duty, the states of America have become 
conscious of a new and more vital community of interest 
and moral partnership in affairs, more clearly conscious 
of the many common sympathies and interests and duties 
which bid them stand together. 

' ' There was a time in the early days of our own great 
nation and of the republics fighting their way to inde- 
pendence in Central and South America when the gov- 
ernment of the United States looked upon itself as in 
some sort the guardian of the republics to the south of her 
as against any encroachments or efforts at political con- 
trol from the other side of the water; felt it its duty to 
play the part even without invitation from them ; and I 
think that we can claim that the task was undertaken 
with a true and disinterested enthusiasm for the freedom 
of the Americas and the unmolested self-government of 
her independent peoples. But it was always difficult to 
maintain such a role without offence to the pride of the 
peoples whose freedom of action we sought to protect, and 
without provoking serious misconceptions of our motives, 
and every thoughtful man of affairs must welcome the 
altered circumstances of the new day in whose light we 
now stand, when there is no claim of guardianship or 
thought of wards, but, instead, a full and honorable asso- 
ciation as of partners between ourselves and our neigh- 
bors, in the interest of all America, north and south. Our 
concern for the independence and prosperity of the states 
of Central and South America is not altered. We retain 
unabated the spirit that has inspired us throughout the 
whole life of our government and which was so frankly 
put into words by President Monroe. "We still mean 
always to make a common cause of national independence 
and of political liberty in America. But that purpose is 
now better understood so far as it concerns ourselves. It 






WOODROW WILSON 239 

is known not to be a selfish purpose. It is known to have 
in it no thought of taking advantage of any government in 
this hemisphere or playing its political fortunes for our 
own benefit. All the governments of America stand, so 
far as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine 
equality and unquestioned independence. 

"We have been put to the test in the case of Mexico, 
and we have stood the test. Whether we have benefited 
Mexico by the course we have pursued remains to be seen. 
Her fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at least 
proved that we will not take advantage of her in her dis- 
tress and undertake to impose upon her an order and gov- 
ernment of our own choosing. Liberty is often a fierce 
and intractable thing, to which no bounds can be set, and 
to which no bounds of a few men's choosing ought ever to 
be set. Every American who has drunk at the true foun- 
tains of principle and tradition must subscribe without 
reservation to the high doctrine of the Virginia Bill of 
Rights, which in the great days in which our government 
was set up was everywhere amongst us accepted as the 
creed of free men. That doctrine is, 'That government 
is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, pro- 
tection, and security of the people, nation, or community' ; 
that ' of all the various modes and forms of government, 
that is the best which is capable of producing the greatest 
degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually 
secured against the danger of maladministration; and 
that, when any government shall be found inadequate or 
contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community 
hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right 
to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be 
judged most conducive to the public weal. ' We have un- 
hesitatingly applied that heroic principle to the case of 
Mexico, and now hopefully await the rebirth of the 
troubled Republic, which had so much of which to purge 
itself and so little sympathy from any outside quarter in 
the radical but necessary process. We will aid and be- 



240 WOODROW WILSON 

friend Mexico, but we will not coerce her ; and our course 
with regard to her ought to be sufficient proof to all 
America that we seek no political suzerainty or selfish 
control. 

''The moral is, that the states of America are not 
hostile rivals, but cooperating friends, and that their 
growing sense of community of interest, alike in matters 
political and in matters economic, is likely to give them 
a new significance as factors in international affairs and 
in the political history of the world. It presents them as 
in a very deep and true sense a unit in world affairs, spir- 
itual partners, standing together because thinking to- 
gether, quick with common sympathies and common 
ideals. Separated they are subject to all the cross-cur- 
rents of the confused politics of a world of hostile 
rivalries; united in spirit and purpose they cannot be 
disappointed of their peaceful destiny. 

' ' This is Pan- Americanism. It has none of the spirit 
of empire in it. It is the embodiment, the effectual em- 
bodiment, of the spirit of law and independence and 
liberty and mutual service. 

"A very notable body of men recently met in the 
City of Washington, at the invitation and as the guests 
of this Government, whose deliberations are likely to be 
looked back to as marking a memorable turning point in 
the history of America. They were representative 
spokesmen of the several independent states of this hem- 
isphere and were assembled to discuss the financial and 
commercial relations of the republics of the two conti- 
nents which nature and political fortune have so inti- 
mately linked together. I earnestly recommend to your 
perusal the reports of their proceedings and of the actions 
of their committees. You will get from them, I think, a 
fresh conception of the ease and intelligence and advan- 
tage with which Americans of both continents may draw 
together in practical cooperation and of what the material 
foundations of this hopeful partnership of interest must 



WOODROW WILSON 241 

consist, — of how we should build them and of how neces- 
sary it is that we should hasten their building. 

" There is, I venture to point out, an especial signifi- 
cance just now attaching to this whole matter of drawing 
the Americas together in bonds of honorable partnership 
and mutual advantage because of the economic readjust- 
ments which the world must inevitably witness within the 
next generation, when peace shall have at last resumed 
its healthful tasks. In the performance of these tasks 
I believe the Americas to be destined to play their parts 
together. I am interested to fix your attention on this 
prospect now because unless you take it within your view 
and permit the full significance of it to command your 
thought I can not find the right light in which to set forth 
the particular matter that lies at the very front of my 
whole thought as I address you today. I mean national 
defense. 

"No one who readily comprehends the spirit of the 
great people for whom we are appointed to speak can 
fail to perceive that their passion is for peace, their 
genius best displayed in the practice of the arts of peace. 
Great democracies are not belligerent. They do not seek 
or desire war. Their thought is of individual liberty and 
of the free labor that supports life and the uncensored 
thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion are not 
in our reckoning, or agreeable to our principles. But just 
because we demand unmolested development and the un- 
disturbed government of our own lives upon our own 
principles of right and liberty, we resent, from whatever 
quarter it may come, the aggression we ourselves will not 
practice. We insist upon security in prosecuting our self- 
chosen lines of national development. We do more than 
that. We demand it also for others. We do not confine 
our enthusiasm for individual liberty and free national 
development to the incidents and movements of affairs 
which affect only ourselves. We feel it wherever there is 
a people that tries to walk in these difficult paths of inde- 



242 WOODROW WILSON 

pendence and right. From the first we have made com- 
mon cause with all partisans of liberty on this side of the 
sea, and have deemed it as important that our neighbors 
should be free from all outside domination as that we 
ourselves should be; have set America aside as a whole 
for the uses of independent nations and political freemen. 

"Out of such thoughts grow all our policies. "We 
regard war merely as a means of asserting the rights of a 
people against aggression. And we are as fiercely jealous 
of coercive or dictatorial power within our own nation as 
of aggression from without. We will not maintain a 
standing army except for uses which are as necessary in 
times of peace as in times of war; and we shall always 
see to it that our military peace establishment is no larger 
than is actually and continuously needed for the uses of 
days in which no enemies move against us. But we do 
believe in a body of free citizens ready and sufficient to 
take care of themselves and of the governments which 
they have set up to serve them. In our constitutions them- 
selves we have commanded that 'the right of the people to 
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,' and our con- 
fidence has been that our safety in times of danger would 
lie in the rising of the nation to take care of itself, as the 
farmers rose at Lexington. 

"But war has never been a mere matter of men and 
guns. It is a thing of disciplined might. If our citizens 
are ever to fight effectively upon a sudden summons, they 
must know how modern fighting is done, and what to do 
when the summons comes to render themselves immedi- 
ately available and immediately effective. And the gov- 
ernment must be their servant in this matter, must supply 
them with the training they need to take care of them- 
selves and of it. The military arm of their government, 
which they will not allow to direct them, they may prop- 
erly use to serve them and make their independence 
secure, — and not their own independence merely but the 
rights also of those with whom they have made common 






WOODROW WILSON 243 

cause, should they also be put in jeopardy. They must 
be fitted to play the great role in the world, and particu- 
larly in this hemisphere, which they are qualified by prin- 
ciple and by chastened ambition to play. 

"It is with these ideals in mind that the plans of the 
Department of War for more adequate national defense 
were conceived which will be laid before you, and which I 
urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as they 
can be properly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to 
me the essential first steps, and they seem to me for the 
present sufficient. 

"They contemplate an increase of the standing force 
of the regular army from its present strength of five thou- 
sand and twenty-three officers and one hundred and two 
thousand nine hundred and eighty-five enlisted men of all 
services to a strength of seven thousand one hundred and 
thirty-six officers and one hundred and thirty-four thou- 
sand seven hundred and seven enlisted men, or 141,843, 
all told, all services, rank and file, by the addition of 
fifty-two companies of coast artillery, fifteen companies 
of engineers, ten regiments of infantry, four regiments of 
field artillery, and four aero squadrons, besides seven 
hundred and fifty officers required for a great variety 
of extra service, especially the all-important duty of 
training the citizen force of which I shall presently speak, 
seven hundred and ninety-two non-commissioned officers 
for service in drill, recruiting and the like, and the neces- 
sary quota of enlisted men for the Quartermaster Corps, 
the Hospital Corps, the Ordnance Department, and other 
similar auxiliary services. These are the additions neces- 
sary to render the army adequate for its present duties, 
duties which it has to perform not only upon our own 
continental coasts and borders and at our interior army 
posts, but also in the Philippines, in the Hawaiian Islands, 
at the Isthmus, and in Porto Rico. 

' ' By way of making the country ready to assert some 
part of its real power promptly and upon a larger scale, 



244 WOODROW WILSON 

should occasion arise, the plan also contemplates supple- 
menting the army by a force of four hundred thousand 
disciplined citizens, raised in increments of one hundred 
and thirty-three thousand a year throughout a period of 
three years. This it is proposed to do by a process of 
enlistment under which the serviceable men of the country 
would be asked to bind themselves to serve with the colors 
for purposes of training for short periods throughout 
three years, and to come to the colors at call at any time 
throughout an additional ' furlough ' period of three years. 
This force of four hundred thousand men would be pro- 
vided with personal accoutrements as fast as enlisted and 
their equipment for the field made ready to be supplied 
at any time. They would be assembled for training at 
stated intervals at convenient places in association with 
suitable units of the regular army. Their period of an- 
nual training would not necessarily exceed two months 
in the year. 

i 'It would depend upon the patriotic feeling of the 
younger men of the country whether they responded to 
such a call to service or not. It would depend upon the 
patriotic spirit of the employers of the country whether 
they made it possible for the younger men in their employ 
to respond under favorable conditions or not. I, for one, 
do not doubt the patriotic devotion either of our young 
men or of those who give them employment, — those for 
whose benefit and protection they would in fact enlist. 
I would look forward to the success of such an experiment 
with entire confidence. 

"At least so much by way of preparation for defense 
seems to me to be absolutely imperative now. We cannot 
do less. 

"The programme which will be laid before you by 
the Secretary of the Navy is similarly conceived. It in- 
volves only a shortening of the time within which plans 
long matured shall be carried out ; but it does make defi- 
nite and explicit a programme which has heretofore been 



j 



WOODROW WILSON 245 

only implicit, held in the minds of the Committees on 
Naval Affairs and disclosed in the debates of the two 
Houses but nowhere formulated or formally adopted. It 
seems to me very clear that it will be to the advantage of 
the country for the Congress to adopt a comprehensive 
plan for putting the navy upon a final footing of strength 
and efficiency and to press that plan to completion within 
the next five years. We have always looked to the navy 
of the country as our first and chief line of defense ; we 
have always seen it to be our manifest course of prudence 
to be strong on the seas. Year by year we have been cre- 
ating a navy which now ranks very high indeed among the 
navies of the maritime nations. We should now definitely 
determine how we shall complete what we have begun, 
and how soon. 

' ' The programme to be laid before you contemplates 
the construction within five years of ten battleships, six 
battle-cruisers, ten scout-cruisers, fifty destroyers, fifteen 
fleet submarines, eighty-five coast submarines, four gun- 
boats, one hospital ship, two ammunition ships, two fuel- 
oil ships, and one repair ship. It is proposed that of this 
number we shall the first year provide for the construc- 
tion of two battleships, two battle-cruisers, three scout- 
cruisers, fifteen destroyers, five fleet submarines, twenty- 
five coast submarines, two gunboats, and one hospital 
ship ; the second year, two battleships, one scout-cruiser, 
ten destroyers, four submarines, fifteen coast submarines, 
one gunboat, and one fuel-oil ship; the third year, two 
battleships, one battle-cruiser, two scout-cruisers, five de- 
stroyers, two fleet submarines, and fifteen coast sub- 
marines; the fourth year, two battleships, two battle- 
cruisers, two scout-cruisers, ten destroyers, two fleet sub- 
marines, fifteen coast submarines, one ammunition ship, 
and one fuel-oil ship ; and the fifth year, two battleships, 
one battle-cruiser, two scout-cruisers, ten destroyers, two 
fleet submarines, fifteen coast submarines, one gunboat, 
one ammunition ship, and one repair ship. 



246 WOODROW WILSON 

"The Secretary of the Navy is asking also for the 
immediate addition to the personnel of the navy of seven 
thousand five hundred sailors, twenty-five hundred ap- 
prentice seamen, and fifteen hundred marines. This in- 
crease would be sufficient to care for the ships which are 
to be completed within the fiscal year 1917 and also for 
the number of men which must be put in training to man 
the ships which will be completed early in 1918. It is also 
necessary that the number of midshipmen at the Naval 
Academy at Annapolis should be increased by at least 
three hundred in order that the force of officers should be 
more rapidly added to ; and authority is asked to appoint, 
for engineering duties only, approved graduates of en- 
gineering colleges, and for service in the aviation corps a 
certain number of men taken from civil life. 

"If this full programme should be carried out we 
should have built or building in 1921, according to the 
estimates of survival and standards of classification fol- 
lowed by the General Board of the Department, an effec- 
tive navy consisting of twenty-seven battleships, of the 
first line, six battle-cruisers, twenty-five battleships of the 
second line, ten armored cruisers, thirteen scout-cruisers, 
five first-class cruisers, three second-class cruisers, ten 
third-class cruisers, one hundred and eight destroyers, 
eighteen fleet submarines, one hundred and fifty-seven 
coast submarines, six monitors, twenty gunboats, four 
supply ships, fifteen fuel ships, four transports, three 
tenders to torpedo vessels, eight vessels of special types, 
and two ammunition ships. This would be a navy fitted to 
our needs and worthy of our traditions. 

' ' But armies and instruments of war are only part of 
what has to be considered if we are to provide for the 
supreme matter of national self-sufficiency and security 
in all its aspects. There are other great matters which 
will be thrust upon our attention whether we will or not. 
There is, for example, a very pressing question of trade 
and shipping involved in this great problem of national 



WOODROW WILSON 247 

adequacy. It is necessary for many weighty reasons of 
national efficiency and development that x we should have 
a great merchant marine. The great merchant fleet we 
once used to make us rich, that great body of sturdy sail- 
ors who used to carry our flag into every sea, and who 
were the pride and often the bulwark of the nation, we 
have almost driven out of existence by inexcusable neglect 
and indifference and by a hopelessly blind and provincial 
policy of so-called economic protection. It is high time 
we repaired our mistake and resumed our commercial 
independence on the seas. 

"For it is a question of independence. If other 
nations go to war or seek to hamper each other's com- 
merce, our merchants, it seems, are at their mercy, to do 
with as they please. We must use their ships, and use 
them as they determine. We have not ships enough of 
our own. We can not handle our own commerce on the 
seas. Our independence is provincial, and is only on land 
and within our own borders. We are not likely to be per- 
mitted to use even the ships of other nations in rivalry of 
their own trade, and are without means to extend our 
commerce even where the doors are wide open and our 
goods desired. Such a situation is not to be endured. It 
is of capital importance not only that the United States 
should be its own carrier on the seas and enjoy the 
economic independence which only an adequate merchant 
marine would give it, but also that the American hem- 
isphere as a whole should enjoy a like independence and 
self-sufficiency, if it is not to be drawn into the tangle of 
European affairs. Without such independence the whole 
question of our political unity and self-determination is 
very seriously clouded and complicated indeed. 

"Moreover, we can develop no true or effective 
American policy without ships of our own, — not ships of 
war, but ships of peace, carrying goods and carrying much 
more; creating friendships and rendering indispensable 
.services to all interests on this side the water. They must 



248 WOODROW WILSON 

move constantly back and forth between the Americas. 
They are the only shuttles that can weave the delicate 
fabric of sympathy, comprehension, confidence, and 
mutual dependence in which we wish to clothe our policy 
of America for Americans. 

"The task of building up an adequate merchant 
marine for American private capital must ultimately 
undertake and achieve, as it has undertaken and achieved 
every other like task amongst us in the past, with admira- 
ble enterprise, intelligence, and vigor ; and it seems to me 
a manifest dictate of wisdom that we should promptly 
remove every legal obstacle that may stand in the way 
of this much-to-be-desired revival of our old independence 
and should facilitate in every possible way the building, 
purchase, and American registration of ships. But capi- 
tal cannot accomplish this great task of a sudden. It must 
embark upon it by degrees, as the opportunities of trade 
develop. Something must be done at once ; done to open 
routes and develop opportunities where they are as yet 
undeveloped ; done to open the arteries of trade where the 
currents have not yet learned to run, — especially between 
the two American continents, where they are, singularly 
enough, yet to be created and quickened ; and it is evident 
that only the govermnent can undertake such beginnings 
and assume the initial financial risks. When the risk has 
passed and private capital begins to find its way in suf- 
ficient abundance into these new channels, the government 
may withdraw. But it can not omit to begin. It should 
take the first steps, and should take them at once. Our 
goods must not lie piled up at our ports and stored upon 
side-tracks in freight cars which are daily needed on the 
roads; must not be left without means of transport to 
any foreign quarter. We must not await the permission 
of foreign ship-owners and foreign governments to send 
them where we will. 

"With a view to meeting these pressing necessities of 
our commerce and availing ourselves at the earliest possi- 



WOODROW WILSON 249 

ble moment of the present unparalleled opportunity of 
linking the two Americas together in bonds of mutual 
interest and service, an opportunity which may never re- 
turn again if we miss it now, proposals will be made to 
the present Congress for the purchase or construction of 
ships to be owned and directed by the government similar 
to those made to the last Congress, but modified in some 
essential particulars. I recommend these proposals to 
you for your prompt acceptance with the more confidence 
because every month that has elapsed since the former 
proposals were made has made the necessity for such 
action more and more manifestly imperative. This need 
was then foreseen ; it is now acutely felt and everywhere 
realized by those for wdiom trade is waiting but who can 
find no conveyance for their goods. I am not so much 
interested in the particulars of the programme as I am 
in taking immediate advantage of the great opportunity 
which awaits us if we will but act in this emergency. In 
this matter, as in all others, a spirit of common counsel 
should prevail, and out of it should come an early solution 
of this pressing problem. 

" There is another matter which seems to me to be 
very intimately associated with the question of national 
safety and preparation for defense. That is our policy 
towards the Philippines and the people of Porto Rico. 
Our treatment of them and their attitude towards us are 
manifestly of the first consequence in the development of 
our duties in the world and in getting a free hand to per- 
form those duties. We must be free from every unneces- 
sary burden or embarrassment; and there is no better 
way to be clear of embarrassment than to fulfil our prom- 
ises and promote the interests of those dependent on us to 
the utmost. Bills for the alteration and reform of the 
government of the Philippines and for rendering fuller 
political justice to the people of Porto Rico were submitted 
to the sixty-third Congress. They will be submitted also 
to you. I need not particularize their details. You are 



250 WOODROW WILSON 

most of you already familiar with them. But I do recom- 
mend them to your early adoption with the sincere convic- 
tion that there are few measures you could adopt which 
would more serviceably clear the way for the great poli- 
cies by which we wish to make good, now and always, our 
right to lead in enterprises of peace and good will and 
economic and political freedom. 

The plans for the armed forces of the nation which I 
have outlined, and for the general policy of adequate 
preparation for mobilization and defense, involve of 
course very large additional expenditures of money, — 
expenditures which will considerably exceed the estimated 
revenues of the government. It is made my duty by 
law, whenever the estimates of expenditure exceed the 
estimates of revenue, to call the attention of the Congress 
to the fact and suggest any means of meeting the de- 
ficiency that it may be wise or possible for me to suggest. 
I am ready to believe that it would be my duty to do so in 
any case; and I feel particularly bound to speak of the 
matter when it appears that the deficiency will arise di- 
rectly out of the adoption by the Congress of measures 
which I myself urge it to adopt. Allow me, therefore, to 
speak briefly of the present state of the Treasury and of 
the fiscal problems which the next year will probably 
disclose. 

"On the thirtieth of June last there was an available 
balance in the general fund of the Treasury of $104,170,- 
105.78. The total estimated receipts for the year 1916, on 
the assumption that the emergency revenue measure 
passed by the last Congress will not be extended beyond 
its present limit, the thirty-first of December, 1915, and 
that the present duty of one cent per pound on sugar will 
be discontinued after the first of May, 1916, will be $670,- 
365,500. The balance of June last and these estimated 
revenues come, therefore, to a grand total of $774,535,- 
605.78. The total estimated disbursements for the present 
fiscal year, including twenty-five millions for the Panama 



WOODROW WILSON 251 

Canal, twelve millions for probable deficiency appropria- 
tions, and fifty thousand dollars for miscellaneous debt 
redemptions, will be $753,891,000; and the balance in the 
general fund of the Treasury will be reduced to $20,644,- 
605.78. The emergency revenue act, if continued beyond 
its present time limitation, would produce, during the half 
year then remaining, about forty-one millions. The duty 
of one cent per pound on sugar, if continued, would pro- 
duce during the two months of the fiscal year remaining 
after the first of May, about fifteen millions. These two 
sums, amounting together to fifty-six millions, if added to 
the revenues of the second half of the fiscal year, would 
yield the Treasury at the end of the year an available bal- 
ance of $76,644,605.78. 

"The additional revenues required to carry out the 
programme of military and naval preparation of which I 
have spoken would, as at present estimated, be for the 
fiscal year 1917, $93,800,000. Those figures, taken with 
the figures for tHe present fiscal year which I have already 
given, disclose our financial problem for the year 1917. 
Assuming that the taxes imposed by the emergency reve- 
nue act and the present duty on sugar are to be discon- 
tinued, and that the balance at the close of the present 
fiscal year will be only $20,644,605.78, that the disburse- 
ments for the Panama Canal will again be about twenty- 
five millions, and that the additional expenditures for the 
army and navy are authorized by the Congress, the deficit 
in the general fund of the Treasury on the thirtieth of 
June, 1917, will be nearly two hundred and thirty-five mil- 
lions. To this sum at least fifty millions should be added 
to represent a safe working balance for the Treasury, and 
twelve millions to include the usual deficiency estimates 
in 1917 ; and these additions would make a total deficit of 
some two hundred and ninety-seven millions. If the pres- 
ent taxes should be continued throughout this year and 
the next, however, there would be a balance in the Treas- 
ury of some seventy-six and a half millions at the end of 



252 WOODROW WILSON 

the present fiscal year, and a deficit at the end of the next 
year of only some fifty millions, or, reckoning in sixty-two 
millions for deficiency appropriations and a safe Treas- 
ury balance at the end of the year, a total deficit of some 
one hundred and twelve millions. The obvious moral of 
the figures is that it is a plain counsel of prudence to con- 
tinue all of the present taxes or their equivalents, and con- 
fine ourselves to the problem of providing one hundred 
and twelve millions of new revenue rather than two hun- 
dred and ninety-seven millions. 

"How shall we obtain the new revenue? We are fre- 
quently reminded that there are many millions of bonds 
which the Treasury is authorized under existing law to 
sell to reimburse the sums paid out of current revenues 
for the construction of the Panama Canal ; and it is true 
that bonds to the amount of approximately $222,000,000 
are now available for that purpose. Prior to 1913 $134,- 
631,980 of these bonds had actually been sold to recoup 
the expenditures at the Isthmus; and now constitute a 
considerable item of the public debt. But I, for one, do 
not believe that the people of this country approve of 
postponing the payment of their bills. Borrowing money 
is short-sighted finance. It can be justified only when 
permanent things are to be accomplished which many gen- 
erations will certainly benefit by and which it seems 
hardly fair that a single generation should pay for. The 
objects we are now proposing to spend money for cannot 
be so classified, except in the sense that everything wisely 
done may be said to be done in the interest of posterity 
as well as in our own. It seems to me a clear dictate of 
prudent statesmanship and frank finance that in what we 
are now, I hope, about to undertake we should pay as 
we go. The people of the country are entitled to know 
just what burdens of taxation they are to carry, and to 
know from the outset, now. The new bills should be paid 
by internal taxation. 

"To what sources, then, shall we turn? This is so 






WOODROW WILSON 253 

peculiarly a question which the gentlemen of the House 
of Representatives are expected under the Constitution 
to propose an answer to that you will hardly expect me to 
do more than discuss it in very general terms. We should 
be following an almost universal example of modern gov- 
ernments if we were to draw the greater part or even the 
whole of the revenues we need from the income taxes. By 
somewhat lowering the present limits of exemption and 
the figures at which the surtax shall begin to be imposed, 
and by increasing, step by step throughout the present 
graduation, the surtax itself, the income taxes as at pres- 
ent apportioned would yield sums sufficient to balance the 
books of the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 
without anywhere making the burden unreasonably or 
oppressively heavy. The precise reckonings are fully and 
accurately set out in the report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury which will be immediately laid before you. 

"And there are many additional sources of revenue 
which can justly be resorted to without hammering the 
industries of the country or putting any too great charge 
upon individual expenditure. A tax of one cent per gal- 
lon on gasoline and naphtha would yield, at the present 
estimated production, $10,000,000 ; a tax of fifty cents per 
horsepower on automobiles and internal explosion en- 
gines, $15,000,000 ; a stamp tax on bank cheques, probably 
$18,000,000 ; a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on pig iron, 
$10,000,000; a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on fab- 
ricated iron and steel probably $10,000,000. In a country 
of great industries like this it ought to be easy to dis- 
tribute the burdens of taxation without making them any- 
where bear too heavily or too exclusively upon any one 
set of persons or undertakings. What is clear is, that the 
industry of this generation should pay the bills of this 
generation. 

"I have spoken to you today, gentlemen, upon a 
single theme, the thorough preparation of the nation to 
care for its own security and to make sure of entire free- 



254 WOODROW WILSON 

dom to play the impartial role in this hemisphere and in 
the world which we all believe to have been providentially 
assigned to it. I have had in my mind no thought of any 
immediate or particular danger arising out of our rela- 
tions with other nations. "We are at peace with all the 
nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that no 
question in controversy between this and other govern- 
ments will lead to any serious breach of amicable rela- 
tions, grave as some differences of attitude and policy 
have been and may yet turn out to be. I am sorry to say 
that the gravest threats against our national peace and 
safety have been uttered within our own borders. There 
are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, born 
under other flags but welcomed under our generous nat- 
uralization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of 
America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into 
the very arteries of our national life ; who have sought to 
bring the authority and good name of our Government 
into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they 
thought it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike 
at them, and to debase our policies to the uses of foreign 
intrigue. Their number is not great as compared with the 
whole number of those sturdy hosts by which our nation 
has been enriched in recent generations out of virile for- 
eign stocks ; but it is great enough to have brought deep 
disgrace upon us and to have made it necessary that we 
should promptly make use of processes of law by which 
we may be purged of their corrupt distempers. America 
never witnessed anything like this before. It never 
dreamed it possible that men sworn into its own citizen- 
ship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied 
some of the best and strongest elements of that little, but 
how heroic, nation that in a high day of old staked its 
very life to free itself from every entanglement that had 
darkened the fortunes of the older nations and set up a 
new standard here, — that men of such origins and such 
free choices of allegiance would ever turn in malign reac- 






WOODKOW WILSON 255 

tion against the Government and people who had wel- 
comed and nurtured them and seek to make this proud 
country once more a hotbed of European passion. A little 
while ago such a thing would have seemed incredible. Be- 
cause it was incredible we made no preparation for it. 
We would have been almost ashamed to prepare for it, as 
if we were suspicious of ourselves, our own comrades and 
neighbors ! But the ugly and incredible thing has actually 
come about and we are without adequate federal laws to 
deal with it. I urge you to enact such laws at the earliest 
possible moment and feel that in doing so I am urging you 
to do something less than save the honor and self-respect 
of the nation. Such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and 
anarchy must be crushed out. They are not many, but 
they are infinitely malignant, and the hand of our power 
should close over them at once. They have formed plots 
to destroy property, they have entered into conspiracies 
against the neutrality of the Government, they have 
sought to pry into every confidential transaction of the 
Government in order to serve interests alien to our own. 
It is possible to deal with these things very effectually. I 
need not suggest the terms in which they may be dealt 
with. 

"I wish that it could be said that only a few men, misled 
by mistaken sentiments of allegiance to the governments 
under which they were born, had been guilty of disturb- 
ing the self-possession and misrepresenting the temper 
and principles of the country during these days of terrible 
war, when it would seem that every man who was truly an 
American would instinctively make it his duty and his 
pride to keep the scales of judgment even and prove him- 
self a partisan of no nation but his own. But it can not. 
There are some men among us, and many resident abroad 
who, though born and bred in the United States and call- 
ing themselves Americans, have so forgotten themselves 
and their honor as citizens as to put their passionate 
sympathy with one or the other side in the great Euro- 



256 WOODROW WILSON 

pean conflict above their regard for the peace and dig- 
nity of the United States. They also preach and prac- 
tice disloyalty. No laws, I suppose, can reach corruptions 
of the mind and heart ; but I should not speak of others 
without also speaking of these and expressing the even 
deeper humiliation and scorn which every self-possessed 
and thoughtfully patriotic American must feel when he 
thinks of them and of the discredit they are daily bringing 
upon us. 

"While we speak of the preparation of the nation to 
make sure of her security and her effective power we must 
not fall into the patent error of supposing that her real 
strength comes from armaments and mere safeguards of 
written law. It comes, of course, from her people, their 
energy, their success in their undertakings, their free 
opportunity to use the natural resources of our great home 
land and of the lands outside our continental borders 
which look to us for protection, for encouragement, and 
for assistance in their development; from the organiza- 
tion and freedom and vitality of our economic life. The 
domestic questions which engaged the attention of the last 
Congress are more vital to the nation in this its time of 
test than at any other time. We can not adequately make 
ready for any trial of our strength unless we wisely and 
promptly direct the force of our laws into these all-im- 
portant fields of domestic action. A matter which it seems 
to me we should have very much at heart is the creation of 
the right instrumentalities by which to mobilize our 
economic resources in any time of national necessity. I 
take it for granted that I do not need your authority to call 
into sympathetic consultation with the directing officers 
of the army and navy men of recognized leadership and 
ability from among our citizens who are thoroughly 
familiar, for example, with the transportation facilities of 
the country and therefore competent to advise how they 
may be coordinated when the need arises, those who can 
suggest the best way in which to bring about prompt 




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WOODROW WILSON 261 

cooperation among the manufacturers of the country, 
should it be necessary, and those who could assist to bring 
the technical skill of the country to the aid of the Govern- 
ment in the solution of particular problems of defense. I 
only hope that if I should find it feasible to constitute such 
an advisory body the Congress would be willing to vote 
the small sum of money that would be needed to defray 
the expenses that would probably be necessary to give it 
the clerical and administrative machinery with which to 
do serviceable work. 

"What is more important is, that the industries and 
resources of the country should be available and ready for 
mobilization. It is the more imperatively necessary, there- 
fore, that we should promptly devise means for doing 
what we have not yet done : that we should give intelli- 
gent federal aid and stimulation to industrial and voca- 
tional education, as we have long done in the large field of 
our agricultural industry ; that, at the same time that we 
safeguard and conserve the natural resources of the coun- 
try we should put them at the disposal of those who will 
use them promptly and intelligently, as was sought to be 
done in the admirable bills submitted to the last Congress 
from its committees on the public lands, bills which I 
earnestly recommend in principle to your consideration ; 
that we should put into early operation some provision 
for rural credits which will add to the extensive borrow- 
ing facilities already afforded the farmer by the Eeserve 
Bank Act, adequate instrumentalities by which long cred- 
its may be obtained on land mortgages; and that we 
should study more carefully than they have hitherto been 
studied the right adaptation of our economic arrange- 
ments to changing conditions. 

"Many conditions about which we have repeatedly 
legislated are being altered from decade to decade, it is 
evident, under our very eyes, and are likely to change 
even more rapidly and more radically in the days im- 
mediately ahead of us, when peace has returned to the 



262 WOODROW WILSON 

world and the nations of Europe once more take up their 
tasks of commerce and industry with the energy of those 
who must bestir themselves to build anew. Just what 
these changes will be no one can certainly foresee or con- 
fidently predict. There are no calculable, because no 
stable, elements in the problem. The most we can do is to 
make certain that we have the necessary instrumentalities 
of information constantly at our service so that we may 
be sure that we know exactly what we are dealing with 
when we come to act, if it should be necessary to act at all. 
We must first certainly know what it is that we are seek- 
ing to adapt ourselves to. I may ask the privilege of 
addressing you more at length on this important matter a 
little later in your session. 

' * In the meantime may I make this suggestion ? The 
transportation problem is an exceedingly serious and 
pressing one in this country. There has from time to 
time of late been reason to fear that our railroads would 
not much longer be able to cope with it successfully, as at 
present equipped and coordinated. I suggest that it would 
be wise to provide for a commission of inquiry to ascer- 
tain by a thorough canvass of the whole question whether 
our laws as at present framed and administered are as 
serviceable as they might be in the solution of the prob- 
lem. It is obviously a problem that lies at the very 
foundation of our efficiency as a people. Such an inquiry 
ought to draw out every circumstance and opinion worth 
considering and we need to know all sides of the matter if 
we mean to do anything in the field of federal legislation. 

' ' No one, I am sure, would wish to take any backward 
step. The regulation of the railways of the country by 
federal commission has had admirable results and has 
fully justified the hopes and expectations of those by 
whom the policy of regulation was originally proposed. 
The question is not what should we undo? It is, whether 
there is anything else we can do that will supply us the 
effective means, in the very process of regulation, for bet- 



WOODROW WILSON 263 

tering the conditions under which the railroads are oper- 
ated and for making them more useful servants of the 
country as a whole. It seems to me that it might be the 
part of wisdom, therefore, before further legislation in 
this field is attempted, to look at the whole problem of 
coordination and efficiency in the full light of a fresh as- 
sessment of circumstance and opinion, as a guide to deal- 
ing with the several parts of it. 

"For what we are seeking now, what in my mind is 
the single thought of this message, is national efficiency 
and security. We serve a great nation. We should serve 
it in the spirit of its peculiar genius. It is the genius of 
common men for self-government, industry, justice, lib- 
erty and peace. We should see to it that it lacks no in- 
strument, no facility or vigor of law, to make it sufficient 
to play its part with energy, safety, and assured success. 
In this we are no partisans but heralds and prophets of a 
new age. ' ' 



CHAPTER XVI 
PRESIDENT WILSON ON PREPAREDNESS. 

President Wilson had been considering the state of 
the country's defense for some time before he made an 
official announcement in his message to congress. He had 
mentioned the problem in several speeches, the most not- 
able of which was delivered at a meeting of the Associated 
Press in New York on April 20th, 1915. His theme on 
that occasion was "America First." The address fol- 
lows: 

' ' I am deeply gratified by the generous reception you 
have accorded me. It makes me look back with a touch of 
regret to former occasions when I have stood in this place 
and enjoyed a greater liberty than is granted me 
today. There have been times when I stood in this spot 
and said what I really thought, and I can not help praying 
that those days of indulgence may be accorded me again. 
I have come here today, of course, somewhat restrained 
by a sense of responsibility which I can not escape. For I 
take the Associated Press very seriously. I know the 
enormous part that you play in the affairs not only of 
this country but of the world. You deal in the raw ma- 
terial of opinion and, if my convictions have any validity, 
opinion ultimately governs the world. 

"It is, therefore, of very serious things that I think 
as I face this body of men. I do not think of you, how- 
ever, as members of the Associated Press. I do not think 
of you as men of different parties or of different racial 
derivations or of different religious denominations. I 
want to talk to you as to my fellow citizens of the United 
States, for there are serious things which as fellow citi- 

264 



WOODROW WILSON 265 

zens we ought to consider. The times behind us, gentle- 
men, have been difficult enough ; the times before us are 
likely to be more difficult still, because, whatever may be 
said about the present condition of the world's affairs, 
it is clear that they are drawing rapidly to a climax, and 
at the climax the test will come, not only for the nations 
engaged in the present colossal struggle — it will come to 
them, of course — but the test will come for us particu- 
larly. 

"Do you realize that, roughly speaking, we are the 
only great Nation at present disengaged? I am not 
speaking, of course, with disparagement of the greatness 
of those nations in Europe which are not parties to the 
present war, but I am thinking of their close neighbor- 
hood to it. I am thinking how their lives much more than 
ours touch the very heart and stuff of the business, 
whereas we have rolling between us and those bitter days 
across the water 3,000 miles of cool and silent ocean. Our 
atmosphere is not yet charged with those disturbing ele- 
ments which must permeate every nation of Europe. 
Therefore, is it not likely that the nations of the world 
will some day turn to us for the cooler assessment of the 
elements engaged? I am not now thinking so preposter- 
ous a thought as that we should sit in judgment upon 
them — no nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other 
nation — but that we shall some day have to assist in re- 
constructing the processes of peace. Our resources are 
untouched ; we are more and more becoming by the force 
of circumstances the mediating Nation of the world in 
respect of its finance. We must make up our minds what 
are the best things to do and what are the best ways to 
do them. We must put our money, our energy, our en- 
thusiasm, our sympathy into these things, and we must 
have our judgments prepared and our spirits chastened 
against the coming of that day. 

1 ' So that I am not speaking in a selfish spirit when 
I say that our whole duty, for the present at any rate, is 



266 WOODROW WILSON 

summed up in this motto, 'America first.' Let us think 
of America before we think of Europe, in order that 
America may be fit to be Europe's friend when the day 
of tested friendship comes. The test of friendship is not 
now sympathy with the one side or the other, but getting 
ready to help both sides when the struggle is over. The 
basis of neutrality, gentlemen, is not indifference; it is 
not self-interest. The basis of neutrality is sympathy for 
mankind. It is fairness, it is good will, at bottom. It is 
impartiality of spirit and of judgment. I wish that all 
of our fellow citizens could realize that. There is in some 
quarters a disposition to create distempers in this body 
politic. Men are even uttering slanders against the 
United States, as if to excite her. Men are saying that if 
we should go to war upon either side there would be a 
divided America — an abominable libel of ignorance! 
America is not all of it vocal just now. It is vocal in 
spots, but I, for one, have a complete and abiding faith in 
that great silent body of Americans who are not standing 
up and shouting and expressing their opinions just now, 
but are waiting to find out and support the duty of Amer- 
ica. I am just as sure of their solidity and of their loyalty 
and of their unanimity^ if we act justly, as I am that the 
history of this country has at every crisis and turning 
point illustrated this great lesson. 

"We are the mediating Nation of the world. I do 
not mean that we undertake not to mind our own busi- 
ness and to mediate where other people are quarreling. 
I mean the word in a broader sense. We are compounded 
of the nations of the world; we mediate their blood, we 
mediate their traditions, we mediate their sentiments, 
their tastes, their passions ; we are ourselves compounded 
of those things. We are, therefore, able to understand all 
nations ; we are able to understand them in the compound, 
not separately, as partisans, but unitedly as knowing and 
comprehending and embodying them all. It is in that 
sense that I mean that America is a mediating Nation. 



WOODROW WILSON 267 

The opinion of America, the action of America, is ready 
to turn, and free to turn, in any direction. Did you ever 
reflect upon how almost every other nation has through 
long centuries been headed in one direction? That is not 
true of the United States. The United States has no 
racial momentum. It has no history back of it which 
makes it run all its energies and all its ambitions in one 
particular direction. And America is particularly free 
in this, that she has no hampering ambitions as a world 
power. We do not want a foot of anybody's territory. 
If we have been obliged by circumstances, or have con- 
sidered ourselves to be obliged by circumstances, in the 
past, to take territory which we otherwise would not have 
thought of taking, I believe I am right in saying that we 
have considered it our duty to administer that territory, 
not for ourselves but for the people living in it, and to put 
this burden upon our consciences — not to think that this 
thing is ours for our use, but to regard ourselves as 
trustees of the great business for those to whom it does 
really belong, trustees ready to hand it over to the cestui 
que trust at any time when the business seems to make 
that possible and feasible. That is what I mean by say- 
ing we have no hampering ambitions. We do not want 
anything that does not belong to us. Is not a nation in 
that position free to serve other nations, and is not a na- 
tion like that ready to form some part of the assessing 
opinion of the world? 

"My interest in the neutrality of the United States is 
not the petty desire to keep out of trouble. To judge by 
my experience, I have never been able to keep out of 
trouble. I have never looked for it, but I have always 
found it. I do not want to walk around trouble. If any 
man wants a scrap that is an interesting scrap and worth 
while, I am his man. I warn him that he is not going to 
draw me into the scrap for his advertisement, but if he is 
looking for trouble that is the trouble of men in general 
and I can help a little, why, then, I am in for it. But I 



2 6 8 WOODROW WILSON 

am interested in neutrality because there is something so 
much greater to do than fight; there is a distinction wait- 
ing for this Nation that no nation has ever yet got. That 
is the distinction of absolute self-control and self-mastery. 
Whom do you admire most among your friends ? The irri- 
table man? The man out of whom you can get a "rise" 
without trying? The man who will fight at the drop of 
the hat, whether he knows what the hat is dropped for 
or not? Don't you admire and don't you fear, if you 
have to contest with him, the self-mastered man who 
watches you with calm eye and comes in only when you 
have carried the thing so far that you must be disposed of f 
That is the man you respect. That is the man who, you 
know, has at bottom a much more fundamental and ter- 
rible courage than the irritable, fighting man. Now, I 
covet for America this splendid courage of reserve moral 
force, and I wanted to point out to you gentlemen simply 
this: 

"There is news and news. There is what is called 
news from Turtle Bay that turns out to be falsehood, at 
any rate in what it is said to signify, but which, if you 
could get the Nation to believe it true, might disturb our 
equilibrium and our self-possession. We ought not to 
deal in stuff of that kind. We ought not to permit that 
sort of thing to use up the electrical energy of the wires, 
because its energy is malign, its energy is not of the truth, 
its energy is of mischief. It is possible to sift truth. I 
have known some things to go out on the wires as true 
when there was only one man or one group of men who 
could have told the originators of that report whether it 
was true or not, and they were not asked whether it was 
true or not for fear it might not be true. That sort of 
report ought not to go out over the wires. There is gen- 
erally, if not always, somebody who knows whether the 
thing is so Or not, and in these days, above all other days, 
we ought to take particular pains to resort to the one 
small group of men, or to the one man if there be but one, 



WOODROW WILSON 269 

who knows whether those things are true or not. The 
world ought to know the truth ; the world ought not at this 
period of unstable equilibrium to be disturbed by rumor, 
ought not to be disturbed by imaginative combinations of 
circumstances, or, rather, by circumstances stated in com- 
bination which do not belong in combination. You gentle- 
men, and gentlemen engaged like you, are holding the 
balance in your hand. This unstable equilibrium rests 
upon scales that are in your hands. For the food of 
opinion, as I began by saying, is the news of the day. I 
have known many a man to go off at a tangent on in- 
formation that was not reliable. Indeed, that describes 
the majority of men. The world is held stable by the 
man who waits for the next day to find out whether the 
report was true or not. 

"We cannot afford, therefore, to let the rumors of 
irresponsible persons and origins get into the atmosphere 
of the United States. We are trustees for what I venture 
to say is the greatest heritage that any nation ever had, 
the love of justice and righteousness and human liberty. 
For, fundamentally, those are the things to which Amer- 
ica is addicted and to which she is devoted. There are 
groups of selfish men in the United States, there are 
coteries, where sinister things are purposed, but the great 
heart of the American people is just as sound and true as 
it ever was. And it is a single heart; it is the heart of 
America. It is not a heart made up of sections selected 
out of other countries. 

"What I try to remind myself of every day when I 
am almost overcome by perplexities, what I try to remem- 
ber, is what the people at home are thinking about. I try 
to put myself in the place of the man who does not know 
all the things that I know and ask myself what he would 
like the policy of this country to be. Not the talkative 
man, not the partisan man, not the man who remembers 
first that he is a Eepublican or a Democrat, or that his 
parents were German or English, but the man who re- 



270 WOODROW WILSON 

members first that the whole destiny of modern affairs 
centers largely upon his being an American first of all. If 
I permitted myself to be a partisan in this present 
struggle, I would be unworthy to represent you. If I 
permitted myself to forget the people who are not 
partisans, I would be unworthy to be your spokesman. 
I am not sure that I am worthy to represent you, but I do 
claim this degree ot worthiness— that before everything 
else I love America." 

During the ensuing months he spoke of preparedness 
on many occasions. He was busy drawing up the formula 
which he placed before the people in a speech delivered 
in New York on November 4th, 1915, while he was being 
entertained at the Manhattan club. He said : 

"I shall assume that here around the dinner table 
on this memorable occasion our talk should properly turn 
to the wide and common interests which are most in our 
thoughts, whether they be the interests of the community 
or of the nation. 

'"A year and a half ago our thought would have 
been almost altogether of great domestic questions. They 
are many and of vital consequence. We must and shall 
address ourselves to their solution with diligence, firm- 
ness, and self-possession, notwithstanding we find our- 
selves in the midst of a world disturbed by great dis- 
aster and ablaze with terrible war; but our thought is 
now inevitably of new things about which formerly we 
gave ourselves little concern. We are thinking now 
chiefly of our relations with the rest of the world — not 
our commercial relations — about those we have thought 
and planned always — but about our political relations, 
our duties as an individual and independent force in the 
world to ourselves, our neighbors, and the world itself. 
"Our principles are well known. It is not necessary 
to avow them again. We believe in political liberty and 
founded our great government to obtain it, the liberty of 
men and of peoples — of men to choose their own lives and 



WOODROW WILSON 271 

of peoples to choose their own allegiance. Our ambition, 
also, all the world has knowledge of. It is not only to be 
free and prosperous ourselves, but also to be the friend 
and thoughtful partisan of those who are free or who 
desire freedom the world over. If we have had ag- 
gressive purposes and covetous ambitions, they were the 
fruit of our thoughtless youth as a nation and we have 
put them aside. We shall, I confidently believe, never 
again take another foot of territory by conquest. We shall 
never in any circumstances seek to make an independent 
people subject to our dominion; because we believe, we 
passionately believe, in the right of every people to choose 
their own allegiance and be free of masters altogether. 
For ourselves we wish nothing but the full liberty of self- 
development ; and with ourselves in this great matter we 
associate all the peoples of our own hemisphere. We' 
wish not only for the United States but for them the full- 
est freedom of independent growth and of action, for we 
know that throughout this hemisphere the same aspira- 
tions are everywhere being worked out, under diverse 
conditions but with the same impulse and ultimate object. 
"All this is very clear to us and will, I confidently 
predict, become more and more clear to the whole world 
as the great processes of the future unfold themselves. It 
is with a full consciousness of such principles and such 
ambitions that we are asking ourselves at the present 
time what our duty is with regard to the armed force of 
the Nation. Within a year we have witnessed what we 
did not believe possible, a great European conflict in- 
volving many of the greatest nations of the world. The 
influences of a great war are everywhere in the air. All 
Europe is embattled. Force everywhere speaks out with 
a loud and imperious voice in a titanic struggle of gov- 
ernments, and from one end of our own dear country to 
the other men are asking one another what our own force 
is, how far we are prepared to maintain ourselves against 
any interference with our national action or development. 



272 WOODROW WILSON 

"In no man's mind, I am sure, is there even raised 
the question of the wilful use of force on our part against 
any nation or any people. No matter what military or 
naval force the United States might develop, statesmen 
throughout the whole world might rest assured that we 
were gathering that force, not for attack in any quarter, 
not for aggression of any kind, not for the satisfaction of 
any political or international ambition, but merely to 
make sure of our own security. We have it in mind to be 
prepared, not for war, but only for defense ; and with the 
thought constantly in our minds that the principles we 
hold most dear can be achieved by the slow processes of 
history only in the kindly and wholesome atmosphere of 
peace, and not by the use of hostile force. The mission of 
America in the world is essentially a mission of peace and 
good will among men. She has become the home and 
asylum of men of all creeds and races. Within her hos- 
pitable borders they have found homes and congenial 
associations and freedom and a wide and cordial wel- 
come, and they have become part of the bone and sinew 
and spirit of America itself. America has been made up 
out of the nations of the world and is the friend of the 
nations of the world. 

"But we feel justified .in preparing ourselves 
to vindicate our right to independent and unmolested 
action by making the force that is in us ready for asser- 
tion. 

1 ' And we know that we can do this in a way that will 
be itself an illustration of the American spirit. In accord- 
ance with our American traditions we want and shall 
work for only an army adequate to the constant and 
legitimate uses of times of international peace. But we 
do want to feel that there is a great body of citizens who 
have received at least the most rudimentary and neces- 
sary forms of military training that they will be ready to 
form themselves into a fighting force at the call of the 
nation; and that the nation has the munitions and sup- 



;WOODROW WILSON 273 

plies with which to equip them without delay should it be 
necessary to call them into action. We wish to supply 
them with the training they need, and we think we can do 
so without calling them at any time too long away from 
their civilian pursuits. 

4 'It is with this idea, with this conception, in mind 
that the plans have been made which it will be my priv- 
ilege to lay before the Congress at its next session. That 
plan calls for only such an increase in the regular Army 
of the United States as experience has proved to be re- 
quired for the performance of the necessary duties of the 
Army in the Philippines, in Hawaii, in Porto Rico, upon 
the borders of the United States, at the coast fortifica- 
tions, and at the military posts of the interior. For the 
rest, it calls for the training within the next three years 
of a force of 400,000 citizen soldiers to be raised in annual 
contingents of 133,000, who would be asked to enlist for 
three years with the colors and three years on furlough, 
but who during their three years of enlistment with the 
colors would not be organized as a standing force but 
would be expected merely to undergo intensive training 
for a very brief period of each year. Their training would 
take place in immediate association with the organized 
units of the regular Army. It would have no touch of the 
amateur about it, neither would it exact of the volunteers 
more than they could give in any one year from their 
civilian pursuits. 

"And none of this would be done in such a way as 
in the slightest degree to supersede or subordinate our 
present serviceable and efficient National Guard. On the 
contrary, the National Guard itself would be used as part 
of the instrumentality by which training would be given 
the citizens who enlisted under the new conditions, and 
I should hope and expect that the legislation by which all 
this would be accomplished would put the National Guard 
itself upon a better and more permanent footing than it 
has ever been before, giving it not only the recognition 



274 WOODROW WILSON 

which it deserves, but a more definite support from the 
national government and a more definite connection with 
the military organization of the nation. 

"What we all wish to accomplish is that the forces 
of the nation should indeed be part of the nation and not 
a separate professional force, and the chief cost of the 
system would not be in the enlistment or in the training 
of the men, but in the providing of ample equipment in 
case it should be necessary to call all forces into the field. 

' ' Moreover, it has been American policy time out of 
mind to look to the Navy as the first and chief line of 
defense. The Navy of the United States is already a 
very great and efficient force. Not rapidly, but slowly, 
with careful attention, our naval force has been developed 
until the Navy of the United States stands recognized as 
one of the most efficient and notable of the modern time. 
All that is needed in order to bring it to a point of extraor- 
dinary force and efficiency as compared with the other 
navies of the world is that we should hasten our pace in 
the policy we have long been pursuing, and that chief 
of all we should have a definite policy of development, 
not made from year to year but looking well into the 
future and planning for a definite consummation. We 
can and should profit in all that we do by the experience 
and example that have been made obvious to us by the 
military and naval events of the actual present. It is 
not merely a matter of building battleships and cruisers 
and submarines, but also a matter of making sure that we 
shall have the adequate equipment of men and munitions 
and supplies for the vessels we build and intend to build. 
Part of our problem is the problem of what I may call the 
mobilization of the resources of the nation at the proper 
time if it should ever be necessary to mobilize them for 
national defense. We shall study efficiency and adequate 
equipment as' carefully as we shall study the number and 
size of our ships, and I believe that the plans already in 
part made public by the Navy Department are plans 



WOODROW WILSON 275 

which the whole nation can approve with rational en- 
thusiasm. 

"No thoughtful man feels any panic haste in this 
matter. The country is not threatened from any quarter. 
She stands in friendly relations with all the world. Her 
resources are known and her self-respect and her capacity 
to care for her own citizens and her own rights. There is 
no fear amongst us. Under the new-world conditions we 
have become thoughtful of the things which all reason- 
able men consider necessary for security and self-defense 
on the part of every nation confronted with the great en- 
terprise of human liberty and independence. That is all. 

"Is the plan we propose sane and reasonable and 
suited to the needs of the hour? Does it not conform to 
the ancient traditions of America? Has any better plan 
been proposed than this programme that we now place 
before the country? In it there is no pride of opinion. It 
represents the best professional and expert judgment of 
the country. But I am not so much interested in pro- 
grammes as I am in safe-guarding at every cost the good 
faith and honor of the country. If men differ with me in 
this vital matter, I shall ask them to make it clear how 
far and in what way they are interested in making the 
permanent interests of the country safe against disturb- 
ance. 

"In the fulfillment of the programme I propose I 
shall ask for the hearty support of the country, of the 
rank and file of America, of men of all shades of political 
opinion. For my position in this matter is different from 
that of the private individual who is free to speak his 
own thoughts and to risk his own opinions in this matter. 
We are here dealing with things that are vital to the life 
of America itself. In doing this I have tried to purge my 
heart of all personal and selfish motives. For the time 
being, I speak as the trustee and guardian of a nation's 
rights, charged with the duty of speaking for that nation 
in matters involving her sovereignty — a nation too big 



276 WOODROW WILSON 

and generous to be exacting and yet courageous enough 
to defend its rights and the liberties of its people wher- 
ever assailed or invaded. I would not feel that I was 
discharging the solemn obligation I owe the country were 
I not to speak in terms of deepest solemnity of the ur- 
gency and necessity of preparing ourselves to guard and 
protect the rights and privileges of our people, our sacred 
heritage of the fathers who struggled to make us an inde- 
pendent nation. 

"The only thing within our own borders that has 
given us grave concern in recent months has been that 
voices have been raised in America professing to be the 
voices of Americans which were not indeed and in truth 
American, but which spoke alien sympathies, which came 
from men who loved other countries better than they 
loved America, men who were partisans of other causes 
than that of America and had forgotten that their chief 
and only allegiance was to the great government under 
which they live. These voices have not been many, but 
they have been loud and very clamorous. . . . The 
chief thing necessary is that the real voice of the nation 
should sound forth unmistakably and in majestic volume, 
in the deep unison of a common, unhesitating national 
feeling. ' ' 

When congress failed to heed the requests of the 
President he decided to take the issue directly before the 
people and for that reason began a tour of the country on 
January 7th, 1916, delivering his first speech in New 
York. He then proceeded to Pittsburgh, where he again 
addressed a public meeting of citizens. His speech there 
follows : 

"I am conscious of a sort of truancy in being absent 
from my duties in Washington, and yet it did seem to me 
to be clearly the obligation laid upon me by the office to 
which I have been chosen that, as your servant and rep- 
resentative, I should come and report to you upon the 
progress of public affairs. . . . 



WOODROW WILSON 281 

"You know that there is a multitude of voices upon 
the question of national defense, and I, for my part, am 
not inclined to criticize any of the views that have been 
put forth upon this important subject, because if there 
is one thing we love more than another in the United 
States, it is that every man should have the privilege, un- 
molested and uncriticized, to utter the real convictions of 
his mind. . . . 

""What is it that we want to defend? You do not 
need to have me answer that question for you ; it is your 
own thought. "We want to defend the life of this Nation 
against any sort of interference. We want to maintain 
the equal right of this Nation as against the action of all 
other nations, and we wish to maintain the peace and 
unity of the Western Hemisphere. Those are great 
things to defend, and in their defense sometimes our 
thought must take a great sweep, even beyond our own 
borders. Do you never stop to reflect just what it is 
that America stands for? If she stands for one thing 
more than another, it is for the sovereignty of self- 
governing peoples, and her example, her assistance, her 
encouragement, has thrilled two continents in this West- 
ern World with all the fine impulses which have built up 
human liberty on both sides of the water. She stands, 
therefore, as an example of independence, as an example 
of free institutions, and as an example of disinterested in- 
ternational action in the maintenance of justice. These 
are very great things to defend, and wherever they are 
attacked America has at least the duty of example, has 
at least the duty of such action as it is possible for her 
with self-respect to take, in order that these things may 
not be neglected or thrust on one side. . . . 

"I am not going before audiences like this to go into 
the details of the programme which has been proposed to 
the Congress of the United States, because, after all, the 
details do not make any difference. I believe in one plan ; 
others may think that an equally good plan can be sub- 



282 WOODROW WILSON 

stituted, and I hope my mind is open to be convinced that 
it can; but what I am convinced of and what we are all 
working for is that there should be provided, not a great 
militant force in this country, but a great reserve of 
adequate and available force which can be called on upon 
occasion. I have proposed that we should be supplied 
with at least half a million men accustomed to handle 
arms and to live in camps ; and that is a very small num- 
ber as compared with the gigantic proportions of modern 
armies. Therefore, it seems to me that no man can speak 
of proposals like that as if they pointed in the direction of 
militarism. . . . 

"For I am proposing something more than what is 
temporary. It is my conception that as the Government 
of the United States has done a great deal, though even 
yet probably not enough, to promote agricultural educa- 
tion in this country, it ought to do a great deal to promote 
industrial education in this country, and that along with 
thoroughgoing industrial and vocational training it is 
perfectly feasible to instruct the youth of the land in the 
mechanism and use of arms, in the sanitation of camps, 
in the more rudimentary principles and practices of mod- 
ern warfare, and so not to bring about occasions such as 
we have sometimes brought about, when upon a sudden 
danger youngsters were summoned by the proclamation 
of the President out of every community, who came crude 
and green and raw into the service of their country — in- 
finitely willing but also wholly unfitted for the great 
physical task which was ahead of them. No nation should 
waste its youth like that. A nation like this should be 
ashamed to use an insufficient instrument when it can 
make its instrument efficient for everything that it 
needs to employ it for, and can do it along with the mag- 
nifying and ennobling and quickening of the tasks of 
peace. 

"But we have to create the schools and develop the 
schools to do these things, and we can not at present wait 



WOODROW WILSON 283 

for this slow process. We must go at once to the task of 
training a very considerable body of men to the use of 
arms and the life of camps, and we can do so upon one 
condition, and one condition only. The test, ladies and 
gentlemen, of what we are proposing is not going to be the 
action of Congress ; it is going to be the response of the 
country. It is going to be the volunteering of the men to 
take the training and the willingness of their employers 
to see to it that no obstacle is put in the way of their vol- 
unteering. It will be up to the young men of this country 
and to the men who employ them ; then, and not till then, 
we shall know how far it is true that America wishes to 
prepare itself for national defense — not a matter of sen- 
timent, but a matter of hard practice. 

"Are the men going to come out, and are those who 
employ them going to facilitate their coming out? I for 
one believe that they will. There are many selfish in- 
fluences at work in this country, as in every other ; but 
when it comes to the large view America can produce the 
substance of patriotism as abundantly as any other coun- 
try under God's sun. I have no anxiety along those lines, 
and I have no anxiety along the lines of what Congress is 
going to do. You elect men to Congress who have opin- 
ions, and it is not strange that they should have differing 
opinions. I am not jealous of debate. If what I propose 
can not stand debate, then something ought to be substi- 
tuted for it which can. And I am not afraid that it is 
going to be all debate. I am not afraid that nothing is 
going to come out of it. I am not afraid that we shall fail 
to get out of it the most substantial and satisfactory re- 
sults. Certainly when I talk a great deal myself I am not 
going to be jealous of the other man's having a chance to 
talk also. We are talking, I take it, in order to get at the 
very final analysis of the case, the final proof and demon- 
stration of what we ought to do. 

' ' My own feeling, ladies and gentlemen, is that it is a 
pity that this is a campaign year. I hope, with the chair- 



284 WOODROW WILSON 

man of the meeting, that the question of national prepara- 
tion for defense will not by anybody be drawn into cam- 
paign uses or partisan aspects. There are many differ- 
ences between Democrats and Republicans, honest dif- 
ferences of opinion and of conviction, but Democrats do 
not differ from Republicans upon the question of the 
nation's safety, and no man ought to draw this thing into 
controversy in order to make party or personal profit out 
of it. I am ready to acknowledge that men on the other 
side politically are just as deeply and just as intelligently 
interested in this question as I am, of course, and I shall 
be ashamed of any friends of mine who may take any 
different view of it. 

"I want you to realize just what is happening, not in 
America, but in the rest of the world. It is very hard to 
describe it briefly. It is very hard to describe it in quiet 
phrases. The world is on fire, and there is tinder every- 
where. The sparks are liable to drop anywhere, and 
somewhere there may be material which we can not pre- 
vent from bursting into flame. The influence of passion is 
everywhere abroad in the world. It is not strange that 
men see red in such circumstances. What a year ago was 
incredible has now happened and the world is so in the 
throes of this titanic struggle that no part of it is un- 
affected. 

"You know what is happening. You know that by a 
kind of improvidence which should be very uncharacter- 
istic of America Ave have neglected for several genera- 
tions to provide the means to carry our own commerce on 
the seas, and, therefore, being dependent upon other 
nations for the most part to carry our commerce, we are 
dependent upon other nations now for the movement of 
our commerce when other nations are caught in the grip 
of war. So that every natural impulse of our peaceful life 
is embarrassed and impeded by the circumstances of the 
time, and wherever there is contact there is apt to be fric- 
tion. Wherever the ordinary rules of commerce at sea 



WOODROW WILSON 285 

and of international relationship are thrust aside or ig- 
nored, there is danger of the more critical kind of contro- 
versy. Where nations are engaged as many nations are 
now engaged, they are peculiarly likely to be stubbornly 
steadfast in the pursuit of the purpose which is the main 
purpose of the moment; and so, while we move among 
friends, we move among friends who are preoccupied, 
preoccupied with an exigent matter which is foreign to 
our own life, foreign to our own policy, but which never- 
theless inevitably affects our own life and our own policy. 
While a year ago it seemed impossible that a struggle 
upon so great a scale should last a whole twelvemonth, it 
has now lasted a year and a half and the end is not yet, 
and all the time things have grown more and more difficult 
to handle. 

"It fills me with a very strange feeling sometimes, 
my fellow citizens, when it seems to be implied that I am 
not the friend of peace. If these gentlemen could have 
sat with me reading the dispatches and handling the ques- 
tions which arise every hour of the twenty-four, they 
would have known how infinitely difficult it had been to 
maintain the peace and they would have believed that I 
was the friend of peace. But I also know the difficulties, 
the real dangers, dangers not about things that I can 
handle, but about things that the other parties handle and 
I can not control. 

"It amazes me to hear men speak as if America stood 
alone in the world and could follow her own life as she 
pleased. We are in the midst of a world that we did not 
make and can not alter ; its atmospheric and physical con- 
ditions are the conditions of our own life also, and there- 
fore, as your responsible servant, I must tell you that the 
dangers are infinite and constant. I should feel that I was 
guilty of an unpardonable omission if I did not go out 
and tell my fellow countrymen that new circumstances 
have arisen which make it absolutely necessary that this 
country should prepare herself, not for war, not for any- 



286 WOODROW WILSON 

thing that smacks in the least of aggression, but for 
adequate national defense. . . . 

4 'What I want you to do is this : I do not want you 
merely to listen to speeches. I want you to make your- 
selves vocal. I want you to let everybody who comes 
within earshot of it know that you are a partisan for the 
adequate preparation of the United States for national 
defense. I have come to ask you not merely to go home 
and say, ' The President seems to be a good fellow and to 
mean what he says'; I want you to go home determined 
that within the whole circle of your influence the Presi- 
dent, not as a partisan, but as the representative of the 
national honor, shall be backed up by the whole force that 
is in the nation." 

He continued his tour and aroused the public to wild 
demonstrations. Speeches were delivered in Cleveland, 
0.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Chicago, 111.; Des Moines, la.; 
Topeka, Kans. ; Kansas City, Mo. ; and St. Louis, Mo. The 
President returned to Washington on February 4th and 
again took up his duties of steering the American ship of 
state through the perils that beset its path. 

Among these was the Mexican question, which was as 
far from solution as ever. Although Huerta had left the 
country, revolution and counter revolution followed in 
quick succession, with none of the contending parties mak- 
ing any headway. 

General Carranza still held the reins of what ap- 
peared to be the central government, but in the north Gen- 
eral Francesco Villa controlled the border provinces, 
while Zapata was strong in the south. The other Ameri- 
can republics watched developments with growing con- 
cern, as the psychological effect on their own people was 
too great to ignore. 

In August, 1915, representatives of six American re- 
publics called on President Wilson to unite with them in 
settling the internal strife in Mexico. He accepted the in- 
vitation with pleasure and the result was an appeal to 



WOODROW WILSON . 287 

Mexican leaders for a conference at which the differences 
could be discussed and possibly settled. The first to ac- 
cept the invitation was Villa. Zapata proved indifferent, 
and Carranza refused outright the good offers of the 
peacemakers. 

The diplomats met again the following month and 
decided that three weeks ' time would be given the Mexi- 
can factions to settle their claims, and after that time the 
one proving the strongest would receive official recogni- 
tion. At the end of the appointed time Carranza was 
judged to hold the most stable government and he ac- 
cordingly was recognized as president de facto of Mexico. 

The effect of this announcement on Villa can well be 
imagined. He at once lost prestige and power and blamed 
all his troubles on the United States. He at once began a 
war of frightfulness on Americans in Mexico, while Car- 
ranza was unable or unwilling to come to their assistance. 

In March, 1916, it was made known to the American 
government that Villa was planning a raid into United 
States territory, but there was hope that the information 
would prove false. It was true, however, for Villa de- 
scended on the town of Columbus, New Mexico, on the 
night of March 9th, and in the fight that followed twenty 
American soldiers and citizens were killed, while the 
Mexican chieftain was driven back with a loss of sixty 
men. 

The insult was too great to ignore. The day follow- 
ing the raid the following proclamation was made by 
President Wilson : 

"An adequate force will be sent at once in pursuit of 
Villa with the single object of capturing him and putting 
a stop to his forays. This can and will be clone in entirely 
friendly aid of constituted authority in Mexico and with 
scrupulous respect for the sovereignty of that Republic." 

It was first necessary for the United States to obtain 
permission from General Carranza before the punitive 
expedition could start into Mexico. There was some 



288 WOODROW WILSON 

wrangling over the question and Carranza finally gave his 
consent on condition that Mexican troops be allowed to 
enter United States territory after fleeing outlaws. 

It was hard at the time for the United States to 
understand the Mexican attitude, but all was made clear 
later when the activities of the German ambassador in 
Mexico came to light. He was filling Carranza 's mind 
with wild and extravagant plans for the reconquest of 
Texas and other American states. 

The expedition into Mexico was commanded by 
General John J. Pershing. He advanced rapidly, but 
failed to get in touch with Villa, who fled before his ap- 
proach. General Pershing was so occupied in avoiding a 
clash with the hostile Mexicans that he could devote little 
time to the business in hand. 

As the expedition went forward the attitude of Car- 
ranza became more hostile.- The result was that per- 
emptory orders issued to General Pershing by the Mexi- 
can generals were ignored, for he refused point blank to 
obey them. Then the Mexican president requested the 
United States to withdraw the expedition. 

There was hesitancy over accepting the request, be- 
cause the American government wanted assurances that 
the border would not again be crossed by bands of Mexi- 
can bandits. This resulted in an order to the Mexican 
army to attack the Americans and the first clash came at 
Carrizal on June 21, 1916, while the President was writ- 
ing a note to Carranza. 

War seemed inevitable. An emergency call was put 
in for the immediate mobilization of the National Guard 
and the nation awaited for the President 's call for volun- 
ters. It is certain that a million men could have been 
raised by direct enlistment, such was the popular indigna- 
tion over the attitude of General Carranza. 

President Wilson set about learning the real reason 
of Carranza 's action. To his satisfaction he found that 
the presence of more than 100,000 American soldiers on 



WOODROW WILSON 289 

the border had a salutary effect, and Carranza's replies 
to his questions grew more conciliatory. The American 
prisoners were surrendered and the crisis passed. A war 
with Mexico at that time would have involved the United 
States to such an extent that operations in the European 
theater of war a year later would have been hampered to 
a great extent. 



CHAPTER XVII 
SUBMARINE WARFARE RESUMED. 

The submarine controversy with Germany was re- 
opened in April, 1916, by the ruthless sinking of the chan- 
nel steamer Sussex. A number of Americans were pas- 
sengers on board and several lost their lives. It seemed 
as though the German Government was about to reject 
the assurances given in reply to the protests of the Presi- 
dent on the sinking of the Lusitania, and the executive 
was quick to call its attention to the delinquency. 

In a note sent from Washington on April 18th, 1916, 
the President called the attention of the German Govern- 
ment to its oft repeated assurances as follows : 

"You are instructed to deliver to the Secretary of 
Foreign Affairs a communication reading as follows : 

"I did not fail to transmit immediately, by telegraph, 
to my Government Your Excellency's note of the 10th 
instant in regard to certain attacks by German sub- 
marines, and particularly in regard to the disastrous ex- 
plosion which on March 24, last, wrecked the French 
steamship Sussex in the English Channel. I have now 
the honor to deliver, under instruction from my Govern- 
ment, the following reply to Your Excellency : 

"Information now in the possession of the Govern- 
ment of the United States fully establishes the facts in 
the case of the Sussex, and the inferences which my Gov- 
ernment has drawn from that information it regards as 
confirmed by the circumstances set forth in Your Ex- 
cellency's note of the 10th instant. On the 24th of March, 
1916, at about 2 :50 o 'clock in the afternoon, the unarmed 
steamer Sussex with 325 or more passengers on board, 
among whom were a number of American citizens, was 

290 



WOODROW WILSON 291 

torpedoed while crossing from Folkestone to Dieppe. 
The Sussex had never been armed ; was a vessel known to 
be habitually used only for the conveyance of passengers 
across the English Channel; and was not following the 
route taken by troop ships or supply ships. About 80 of 
her passengers, noncombatants of all ages and sexes, in- 
cluding citizens of the United States, were killed or in- 
jured. 

''A careful, detailed, and scrupulously impartial in- 
vestigation by naval and military officers of the United 
States has conclusively established the fact that the 
Sussex was torpedoed without warning or summons to 
surrender and that the torpedo by which she was struck 
was of German manufacture. In the view of the Govern- 
ment of the United States these facts from the first made 
the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a German 
submarine unavoidable. It now considers that conclusion 
substantiated by the statements of Your Excellency's 
note. A full statement of the facts upon which the Gov- 
ernment of the United States has based its conclusions is 
inclosed. 

' ' The Government of the United States, after having 
given careful consideration to the note of the Imperial 
Government of the 10th of April, regrets to state that the 
impression made upon it by the statements, and pro- 
posals contained in that note is that the Imperial Govern- 
ment has failed to appreciate the gravity of the situation 
which has resulted, not alone from the attack on the 
Sussex but from the whole method and character of sub- 
marine warfare as disclosed by the unrestrained practice 
of the commanders of German undersea craft during the 
past twelvemonth and more in the indiscriminate destruc- 
tion of merchant vessels of all sorts, nationalities, and 
destinations. If the sinking of the Sussex had been an 
isolated case the Government of the United States might 
find it possible to hope that the officer who was responsible 
for that act had wilfully violated his orders or had been 



292 WOODROW WILSON 

criminally negligent in taking none of the precautions 
they prescribed, and that the ends of justice might be 
satisfied by imposing upon him an adequate punishment, 
coupled with a formal disavowal of the act and payment 
of a suitable indemnity by the Imperial Government. 
But, though the attack upon the Sussex was manifestly 
indefensible and caused a loss of life so tragical as to 
make it stand forth as one of the most terrible examples 
of the inhumanity of submarine warfare as the com- 
manders of German vessels are conducting it, it unhap- 
pily does not stand alone. 

"On the contrary, the Government of the United 
States is forced by recent events to conclude that it is only 
one instance, even though one of the most extreme and 
most distressing instances, of the deliberate method and 
spirit of indiscriminate destruction of merchant vessels 
of all sorts, nationalities, and destinations which have be- 
come more and more umnistakable as the activity of 
German undersea vessels of war has in recent months 
been quickened and extended. 

' ' The Imperial Government will recall that when, in 
February, 1915, it announced its intention of treating the 
waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland as em- 
braced within the seat of war and of destroying all 
merchant ships owned by its enemies that might be found 
within that zone of danger, and warned all vessels, neutral 
as well as belligerent, to keep out of the waters thus 
proscribed or to enter them at their peril, the Government 
of the United States earnestly protested. It took the 
position that such a policy could not be pursued without 
constant gross and palpable violations of the accepted law 
of nations, particularly if submarine craft were to be 
employed as its instruments, inasmuch as the rules pre- 
scribed by that law, rules founded on the principles of 
humanity and established for the protection of the lives of 
noncombatants at sea, could not in the nature of the case 
be observed by such vessels. It based its protest on the 



WOODROW WILSON 293 

ground that persons of neutral nationality and vessels of 
neutral ownership would be exposed to extreme and in- 
tolerable risks ; and that no right to close any part of the 
high seas could lawfully be asserted by the Imperial Gov- 
ernment in the circumstances then existing. The law of 
nations in these matters, upon which the Government of 
the United States based that protest, is not of recent 
origin or founded upon merely arbitrary principles set 
up by convention. It is based, on the contrary, upon 
manifest principles of humanity and has long been es- 
tablished with the approval and by the express assent of 
all civilized nations. 

"The Imperial Government, notwithstanding, per- 
sisted in carrying out the policy announced, expressing 
the hope that the dangers involved, at any rate to neutral 
vessels, would be reduced to a minimum by the instruc- 
tions which it had issued to the commanders of its sub- 
marines, and assuring the Government of the United 
States that it would take every possible precaution both 
to respect the rights of neutrals and to safeguard the 
lives of noncombatants. 

"In pursuance of this policy of submarine warfare 
against the commerce of its adversaries, thus announced 
and thus entered upon in despite of the solemn protest of 
the Government of the United States, the commanders of 
the Imperial Government's undersea vessels have carried 
on practices of such ruthless destruction which have made 
it more and more evident as the months have gone by that 
the Imperial Government has found it impracticable to 
put any such restraints upon them as it had hoped and 
promised to put. Again and again the Imperial Govern- 
ment has given its solemn assurances to the Government 
of the United States that at least passenger ships would 
not be thus dealt with, and yet it has repeatedly permitted 
its undersea commanders to disregard those assurances 
with entire impunity. As recently as February last it 
gave notice that it would regard all armed merchantmen 



294 WOODROW WILSON 

owned by its enemies as part of the armed naval forces 
of its adversaries and deal with them as with men-of-war, 
thus, at least by implication, pledging itself to give warn- 
ing to vessels which were not armed and to accord secur- 
ity of life to their passengers and crews ; but even this 
limitation their submarine commanders have recklessly 
ignored. 

"Vessels of neutral ownership, even vessels of 
neutral ownership bound from neutral port to neutral 
port, have been destroyed along with vessels of belliger- 
ent ownership in constantly increasing numbers. Some- 
times the merchantmen attacked have been warned and 
summoned to surrender before being fired on or tor- 
pedoed ; sometimes their passengers and crews have been 
vouchsafed the poor security of being allowed to take to 
the ship's boats before the ship was sent to the bottom. 
But again and again no warning has been given, no escape 
even to the ship 's boats allowed to those on board. Great 
liners like the Lusitania and Arabic and mere passenger 
boats like the Sussex have been attacked without a 
moment's warning, often before they have even become 
aware that they were in the presence of an armed ship of 
the enemy, and the lives of noncombatants, passengers, 
and crew have been destroyed wholesale and in a manner 
which the Government of the United States can not but 
regard as wanton and without the slightest color of just- 
ification. No limit of any kind has in fact been set to their 
indiscriminate pursuit and destruction of merchantmen 
of all kinds and nationalities within the waters which the 
Imperial Government has chosen to designate as lying 
within the seat of war. The roll of Americans who have 
lost their lives upon ships thus attacked and destroyed 
has grown month by month until the ominous toll has 
mounted into the hundreds. 

' ' The Government of the United States has been very 
patient. At every stage of this distressing experience of 
t ragedy after tragedy it has sought to be governed by the 



WOODROW WILSON 295 

most thoughtful consideration of the extraordinary cir- 
cumstances of an unprecedented war and to be guided by 
sentiments of very genuine friendship for the people and 
Government of Germany. It has accepted the successive 
explanations and assurances of the Imperial Government 
as of course given in entire sincerity and good faith, and 
has hoped, even against hope, that it would prove to be 
possible for the Imperial Government so to order and 
control the acts of its naval commanders as to square its 
policy with the recognized principles of humanity as em- 
bodied in the law of nations. It has made every allowance 
for unprecedented conditions and has been willing to wait 
until the facts became unmistakable and were susceptible 
of only one interpretation. 

"It now owes it to a just regard for its own rights to 
say to the Imperial Government that that time has come. 
It has become painfully evident to it that the position 
which it took at the very outset is. inevitable, namely, the 
use of submarines for the destruction of an enemy's com- 
merce, is, of necessity, because of the very character of 
the vessels employed and the very methods of attack 
which their employment of course involves, utterly in- 
compatible with the principles of humanity, the long- 
established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and 
the sacred immunities of noncombatants. 

"If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Govern- 
ment to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare 
against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines 
without regard to what the Government of the United 
States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules 
of international law and the universally recognized dic- 
tates of humanity, the Government of the United States 
is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one 
course it can pursue. Unless the Imperial Government 
should now immediately declare and effect an abandon- 
ment of its present methods of submarine warfare against 
passenger and freight-carrying vessels, the Government 



296 WOODROW WILSON 

of the United Statees can have no choice but to sever 
diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether. 
This action the Government of the United States con- 
templates with the greatest reluctance but feels con- 
strained to take in behalf of humanity and the rights of 
neutral nations." 

Lansing. 

On the following day the President appeared at a joint 
session of congress and delivered a special message. He 
told congress of the action he had taken which was within 
his right as chief executive of the United States. His 
message was as follows : 

" Gentlemen of the Congress: A situation has arisen 
in the foreign relations of the country of which it is my 
plain duty to inform you very frankly. 

"It will be recalled that in February, 1915, the Im- 
perial German Government announced its intention to 
treat the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland 
as embraced within the seat of war and to destroy all 
merchant ships owned by its enemies that might be found 
within any part of that portion of the high seas, and that 
it warned all vessels, of neutral as well as of belligerent 
ownership, to keep out of the waters it had thus proscribed 
or else enter them at their peril. The Government of 
the United States earnestly protested. It took the posi- 
tion that such a policy could not be pursued without the 
practical certainty of gross and palpable violations of 
the law of nations, particularly if submarine craft were 
to be employed as its instruments, inasmuch as the 
rules prescribed by that law, rules founded upon prin- 
ciples of humanity and established for the protection of 
the lives of non-combatants at sea, could not in the nature 
of the case be observed by such vessels. It based its pro- 
test on the ground that persons of neutral nationality and 
vessels of neutral ownership would be exposed to extreme 
and intolerable risks, and that no right to close any part 



WOODROW WILSON 297 

of the high seas against their use or to expose them to 
such risks could lawfully be asserted by any belligerent 
government. The law of nations in these matters, upon 
which the Government of the United States based its 
protest, is not of recent origin or founded upon merely 
arbitrary principles set up by convention. It is based, on 
the contrary, upon manifest and imperative principles of 
humanity and has long been established with the approval 
and by the express assent of all civilized nations. 

"Notwithstanding the earnest protest of our Gov- 
ernment, the Imperial German Government at once pro- 
ceeded to carry out the policy it had announced. It ex- 
pressed the hope that the dangers involved, at any rate 
the dangers to neutral vessels, would be reduced to a 
minimum by the instructions which it had issued to its 
submarine commanders, and assured the Government of 
the United States that it would take every possible pre- 
caution both to respect the rights of neutrals and to safe- 
guard the lives of non-combatants. 

"What has actually happened in the year which has 
since elapsed has shown that those hopes were not justi- 
fied, those assurances insusceptible of being fulfilled. In 
pursuance of the policy of submarine warfare against the 
commerce of its adversaries, thus announced and entered 
upon by the Imperial German Government in despite of 
the solemn protest of this Government, the commanders 
of German undersea vessels have attacked merchant ships 
with greater and greater activity, not only upon the high 
seas surrounding Great Britain and Ireland but wherever 
they could encounter them, in a way that has grown more 
and more ruthless, more and more indiscriminate as the 
months have gone by, less and less observant of restraints 
of any kind; and have delivered their attacks without 
compunction against vessels of every nationality and 
bound upon every sort of errand. Vessels of neutral own- 
ership, even vessels of neutral ownership bound from 
neutral port to neutral port, have been destroyed along 



298 WOODROW WILSON 

with vessels of belligerent ownership in constantly in- 
creasing numbers. Sometimes the merchantman attacked 
has been warned and summoned to surrender before 
being fired on or torpedoed; sometimes passengers or 
crews have been vouchsafed the poor security of being al- 
lowed to take to the ship's boats before she was sent to 
the bottom. But again and again no warning has been 
given, no escape even to the ship's boats allowed to those 
on board. What this Government foresaw must happen 
has happened. Tragedy has followed tragedy on the seas 
in such fashion, with such attendant circumstances, as to 
make it grossly evident that warfare of such a sort, if 
warfare it be, can not be carried on without the most 
palpable violation of the dictates alike of right and of 
humanity. Whatever the disposition and intention of the 
Imperial German Government, it has manifestly proved 
impossible for it to keep such methods of attack upon the 
commerce of its enemies within the bounds set by either 
the reason or the heart of mankind. 

"In February of the present year the Imperial 
German Government informed this Government and the 
other neutral governments of the world that it had reason 
to believe that the Government of Great Britain had 
armed all merchant vessels of British ownership and had 
given them secret orders to attack any submarine of the 
enemy they might encounter upon the seas, and that the 
Imperial German Government felt justified in the cir- 
cumstances in treating all armed merchantmen of bel- 
ligerent ownership as auxiliary vessels of war, which it 
would have the right to destroy without warning. The 
law of nations has long recognized the right of merchant- 
men to carry arms for protection and to use them to repel 
attack, although to use them, in such circumstances, at 
their own risk; but the Imperial German Government 
claimed the right to set these understandings aside in 
circumstances which it deemed extraordinary. Even the 
terms in which it announced its purpose thus still further 



WOODROW WILSON 299 

to relax the restraints it had previously professed its 
willingness and desire to put upon the operation of its 
submarines carried the plain implication that at least 
vessels which were not armed would still be exempt from 
destruction without warning and that personal safety 
would be accorded their passengers and crews ; but even 
that limitation, if it was ever practicable to observeit, 
has in fact constituted no check at all upon the destruction 
of ships of every sort. 

"Again and again the Imperial German Govern- 
ment has given this Government its solemn assurances 
that at least passenger ships would not be thus dealt with, 
and yet it has again and again permitted its undersea 
commanders to disregard those assurances with entire 
impunity. Great liners like the Lusitania and the Arabic 
and mere ferryboats like the Sussex have been attacked 
without a moment's warning, sometimes before they had 
even become aware that they were in the presence of an 
armed vessel of the enemy, and the lives of non-com- 
batants, passengers and crew have been sacrificed whole- 
sale, in a manner which the Government of the United 
States cannot but regard as wanton and without the 
slightest color of justification. No limit of any kind has 
in fact been set to the indiscriminate pursuit and destruc- 
tion of merchantment of all kinds and nationalities with- 
in the waters, constantly extending in area, where these 
operations have been carried on ; and the roll of Ameri- 
cans who have lost their lives on ships thus attacked and 
destroyed has grown month by month until the ominous 
toll has mounted into the hundreds. 

"One of the latest and most shocking instances of 
this method of warfare was that of the destruction of the 
French cross channel steamer Sussex. It must stand 
forth, as the sinking of the steamer Lusitania did, as so 
singularly tragical and unjustifiable as to constitute a 
truly terrible example of the inhumanity of submarine 
warfare as the commanders of German vessels have for 



300 WOODROW WILSON 

the past twelvemonth been conducting it. If this instance 
stood alone, some explanation, some disavowal by the 
German Government, some evidence of criminal mistake 
or wilful disobedience on the part of the commander of 
the vessel that fired the torpedo might be sought or 
entertained; but unhappily it does not stand alone. 
Recent events make the conclusion inevitable that it is 
only one instance, even though it be one of the most ex- 
treme and distressing instances, of the spirit and method 
of warfare which the Imperial German Government has 
mistakenly adopted, and which from the first exposed 
that Government to the reproach of thrusting all neutral 
rights aside in pursuit of its immediate objects. 

"The Government of the United States has been very 
patient. At every stage of this distressing experience of 
tragedy after tragedy in which its own citizens were in- 
volved it has sought to be restrained from any extreme 
course of action or of protest by a thoughtful considera- 
tion of the extraordinary circumstances of this unprec- 
edented war, and actuated in all that it said or did by 
the sentiments of genuine friendship which the people of 
the United States have always entertained and continue 
to entertain towards the German nation. It has of course 
accepted the successive explanations and assurances of 
the Imperial German Government as given in entire 
sincerity and good faith, and has hoped, even against 
hope, that it would prove to be possible for the German 
Government so to order and control the acts of its naval 
commanders as to square its policy with the principles of 
humanity as embodied in the law of nations. It has been 
willing to wait until the significance of the facts became 
absolutely unmistakable and susceptible of but one in- 
terpretation. 

:< That point has now unhappily been reached. The 
facts are susceptible of but one interpretation. The Im- 
perial German Government has been unable to put any 
limits or restraints upon its warfare against either 



WOODROW WILSON 301 

freight or passenger ships. It has therefore become pain- 
fully evident that the position which this Government 
took at the very outset is inevitable, namely, that the use 
of submarines for the destruction of an enemy's com- 
merce is of necessity, because of the very character of 
the vessels employed and the very methods of attack 
which their employment of course involves, incompatible 
with the principles of humanity, the long established and 
incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred im- 
munities of noncombatants. 

"I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the 
Imperial German Government that if it is still its purpose 
to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare 
against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines, 
notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of 
conducting that warfare in accordance with what the 
Government of the United States must consider the 
sacred and indisputable rules of international law and 
the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Gov- 
ernment of the United States is at last forced to the con- 
clusion that there is but one course it can pursue; and 
that unless the Imperial German Government should now 
immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its 
present -methods of warfare against passenger and 
freight carrying vessels this Government can have no 
choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Govern- 
ment of the German Empire altogether. 

"This decision I have arrived at with the keenest 
regret; the possibility of the action contemplated I am 
sure all thoughtful Americans will look forward to with 
unaffected reluctance. But we cannot forget that we 
are in some sort and by the force of circumstances the 
responsible spokesman of the rights of humanity, and 
that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in 
process of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom of 
this terrible war. We owe it to a due regard for our own 
rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a representa- 



302 WOODROW WILSON 

tive of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a 
just conception of the rights of mankind to take this 
stand now with the utmost solemnity and firmness. 

"I have taken it, and taken it in the confidence that 
it will meet with your approval and support. All sober- 
minded men must unite in hoping that the Imperial Ger- 
man Government, which has in other circumstances stood 
as the champion of all that we are now contending for in 
the interest of humanity, may recognize the justice of our 
demands and meet them in the spirit in which they are 
made." 

Two weeks later the German Government, in a long 
reply, informed the President that the use of submarines 
would be limited in the future, to avoid offending the 
United States. Submarine commanders had been in- 
structed to act on the principle of "visit and search" in 
accordance with the President's demand, the note said, 
and there should be no further cause for protest. 

The President was not satisfied with the note where 
it insinuated that Germany's course would depend partly 
upon the manner in which her opponents waged war and 
did not hesitate to call the attention of the German Chan- 
cellor to the fact. In a note which was sent from Wash- 
ington on May 8th, 1916, the President said : 

"You are instructed to deliver to the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs a communication textually as follows : 

"The note of the Imperial German Government 
under date of May 4, 1916, has received careful consider- 
ation by the Government of the United States. It is 
especially noted, as indicating the purpose of the Imperial 
Government as to the future, that it 'is prepared to do 
its utmost to confine the operation of the war for the rest 
of its duration to the fighting forces of the belligerents,' 
and that it is determined to impose upon all its com- 
manders at sea the limitations of the recognized rules of 
international law upon which the Government of the 
United States has insisted. Throughout the months 



WOODROW WILSON 303 

which have elapsed since the Imperial Government an- 
nounced, on February 4, 1915, its submarine policy, now 
happily abandoned, the Government of the United States 
has been constantly guided and restrained by motives of 
friendship in its patient efforts to bring to an amicable 
settlement the critical questions arising from that policy. 
Accepting the Imperial Government's declaration of its 
abandonment of the policy which has so seriously men- 
aced the good relations between the two countries, the 
Government of the United States will rely upon a scrup- 
ulous execution henceforth of the now altered policy of 
the Imperial Government, such as will remove the prin- 
cipal danger to an interruption of the good relations exist- 
ing between the United States and Germany. 

' l The Government of the United States feels it neces- 
sary to state that it takes it for granted that the Imperial 
German Government does not intend to imply that the 
maintenance of its newly announced policy is in any way 
contingent upon the course or result of diplomatic negoti- 
ations between the Government of the United States and 
any other belligerent Government, notwithstanding the 
fact that certain passages in the Imperial Government's 
note of the 4th instant might appear to be susceptible of 
that construction. In order, however, to avoid any 
possible misunderstanding, the Government of the United 
States notifies the Imperial Government that it cannot for 
a moment entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that 
respect by German naval authorities for the rights of 
citizens of the United States upon the high seas should 
in any way or in the slightest degree be made contingent 
upon the conduct of any other Government affecting the 
rights of neutrals and non-combatants. Responsibility 
in such matters is single, not joint; absolute, not rela- 
tive." 

This note closed the submarine controversy for nine 
months and was the last ever sent by the United States. 
It was considered a diplomatic victory by the friends of 



304 WOODROW WILSON 

the President, and with good reason, for he had, by sheer 
force of will and reasoning, forced the German Govern- 
ment into acknowledging that he was the master of their 
diplomatic experts. 



CHAPTER XVin 
THE EIGHT HOUR LAW. 

The outlook for the year 1916 was one of peace for the 
United States. Unaffected by the cries of the war party, 
which would have forced the United States into the war 
regardless of the offense given, President Wilson kept the 
even tenor of his way. He replied to acts of aggression on 
the part of Mexico with continued expressions of faith in 
the country's own ability to get back to a sane standard of 
government. He had won a singular diplomatic victory 
over Germany and forced that nation to admit that ruth- 
less submarine warfare was a crime against civilization. 

The domestic situation was not a path of roses by any 
means. The overworked employes of railroads in the 
United States were clamoring for a law that would guar- 
antee the eight-hour day. It was possible in those days 
for a railroad company to keep a man at work for sixteen 
hours out of every twenty-four, and the workers found a 
ready champion in the President. 

He appeared before Congress at a special session on 
August 29, 1916, and laid the problem before them in 
clear, precise terms that could not be misconstrued. His 
speech follows : 

1 ' Gentlemen of the Congress : I have come to you to 
seek your assistance in dealing with a very grave situation 
which has arisen out of the demand of the employers of 
the railroads engaged in freight train service that they 
be granted an eight-hour working day, safeguarded by 
payment for an hour and a half of service for every hour 
of work beyond the eight. 

"The matter has been agitated for more than a year. 
The public has been made familiar with the demands of 

305 



306 WOODROW WILSON 

the men and the arguments urged in favor of them, and 
even more familiar with the objections of the railroads 
and their counter demand that certain privileges now en- 
joyed by their men and certain bases of payment worked 
out through many years of contest be reconsidered, espe- 
cially in their relation to the adoption of an eight-hour 
day. The matter came some three weeks ago to a final 
issue and resulted in a complete deadlock between the par- 
ties. The means provided by law for the mediation of the 
controversy failed and the means of arbitration for which 
the law provides were rejected. The representatives of 
the railway executives proposed that the demands of the 
men be submitted in their entirety to arbitration, along 
with certain questions of readjustment as to pay and con- 
ditions of employment which seemed to them to be either 
closely associated with the demands or to call for recon- 
sideration on their own merits; the men absolutely de- 
clined arbitration, especially if any of their established 
privileges were by that means to be drawn again in ques- 
tion. The law in the matter put no compulsion upon them. 
The four hundred thousand men from whom the demands 
proceeded had voted to strike if their demands were re- 
fused ; the strike was imminent ; it has since been set for 
the 4th of September next. It affects the men who man 
the freight trains on practically every railway in the coun- 
try. The freight service throughout the United States 
must stand still until their places are filled, if, indeed, it 
should prove possible to fill them at all. Cities will be cut 
off from their food supplies, the whole commerce of the 
nation will be paralyzed, men of every sort and occupa- 
tion will be thrown out of employment, countless thou- 
sands will in all likelihood be brought, it may be, to the 
very point of starvation, and a tragical national calamity 
brought on, to be added to the other distresses of the time, 
because no basis of accommodation or settlement has been 
found. 

"Just so soon as it became evident that mediation 



WOODROW WILSON 307 

under the existing law had failed and that arbitration had 
been rendered impossible by the attitude of the men, I 
considered it my duty to confer with the representatives 
of both the railways and the brotherhoods, and myself 
offer mediation, not as an arbitrator, but merely as 
spokesman of the nation, in the interest of justice, indeed, 
and as a friend of both parties, but not as judge, only as 
the representative of one hundred millions of men, 
women, and children who would pay the price, the incal- 
culable price, of loss and suffering should these few men 
insist upon approaching and concluding the matters in 
controversy between them merely as employers and em- 
ployees, rather than as patriotic citizens of the United 
States looking before and after and accepting the larger 
responsibility which the public would put upon them. 

"It seemed to me, in considering the subject-matter 
of the controversy, that the whole spirit of the time and 
the preponderant evidence of recent economic experience 
spoke for the eight-hour day. It has been adjudged by the 
thought and experience of recent years a thing upon 
which society is justified in insisting as in the interest 
of health, efficiency, contentment, and a general increase 
of economic vigor. The whole presumption of modern 
experience would, it seemed to me, be in its favor, whether 
there was arbitration or not, and the debatable points to 
settle were those which arose out of the acceptance of the 
eight-hour day rather than those which affected its estab- 
lishment. I, therefore, proposed that the eight-hour day 
be adopted by the railway managements and put into 
practice for the present as a substitute for the existing 
ten-hoUr basis of pay and service ; that I should appoint, 
with the permission of the Congress, a small commission 
to observe the results of the change, carefully studying 
the figures of the altered operating costs, not only, but 
also the conditions of labor under which the men worked 
and the operation of their existing agreements with the 
railroads, with instructions to report the facts as they 



308 WOODROW WILSON 

found them to the Congress at the earliest possible day, 
but without recommendation; and that, after the facts 
had been thus disclosed, an adjustment should in some 
orderly manner be sought of all the matters now left un- 
adjusted between the railroad managers and the men. 

"These proposals were exactly in line, it is interest- 
ing to note, with the position taken by the Supreme Court 
of the United States when appealed to to protect certain 
litigants from the financial losses which they confidently 
expected if they should submit to the regulation of their 
charges and of their methods of service by public legisla- 
tion. The Court has held that it would not undertake to 
form a judgment upon forecasts, but could base its action 
only upon actual experience ; that it must be supplied with 
facts, not with calculations and opinions, however scien- 
tifically attempted. To undertake to arbitrate the ques- 
tion of the adoption of an eight-hour day in the light of 
results merely estimated and predicted would be to under- 
take an enterprise of conjecture. No wise man could 
undertake it, or, if he did undertake it, could feel assured 
of his conclusions. 

"I unhesitatingly offered the friendly services of the 
administration to the railway managers to see to it that 
justice was done the railroads in the outcome. I felt war- 
ranted in assuring them that no obstacle of law would be 
suffered to stand in the way of their increasing their reve- 
nues to meet the expenses resulting from the change so 
far as the development of their business and of their ad- 
ministrative efficiency did not prove adequate to meet 
them. The public and the representatives of the public, 
I felt justified in assuring them, were disposed to nothing 
but justice in such cases and were willing to serve those 
who served them. 

'The representatives of the brotherhoods accepted 
the plan ; but the representatives of the railroads declined 
to accept it. In the face of what I cannot but regard as the 
practical certainty that they will be ultimately obliged to 



WOODROW WILSON 309 

accept the eight-hour day by the concerted action of or- 
ganized labor, backed by the favorable judgment of 
society, the representatives of the railway management 
have felt justified in declining a peaceful settlement which 
would engage all the forces of justice, public and private, 
on their side to take care of the event. They fear the 
hostile influence of shippers, who would be opposed to an 
increase of freight rates (for which, however, of course, 
the public itself would pay) ; they apparently feel no con- 
fidence that the Interstate Commerce Commission could 
withstand the objections that would be made. They do 
not care to rely upon the friendly assurances of the Con- 
gress or the President. They have thought it best that 
they should be forced to yield, if they must yield, not by 
counsel, but by the suffering of the country. While my 
conferences with them were in progress, and when to all 
outward appearance those conferences had come to a 
standstill, the representatives of the brotherhoods sud- 
denly acted and set the strike for the 4th of September. 

"The railway managers based their decision to re- 
ject my counsel in this matter upon their conviction that 
they must at any cost to themselves or to the country 
stand firm for the principle of arbitration which the men 
had rejected. I based my counsel upon the indisputable 
fact that there was no means of obtaining arbitration. 
The law supplied none ; earnest efforts at mediation had 
failed to influence the men in the least. To stand firm for 
the principle of arbitration and yet not get arbitration 
seemed to me futile, and something more than futile, be- 
cause it involved incalculable distress to the country and 
consequences in some respects worse than those of war, 
and that in the midst of peace. 

' ' I yield to no man in firm adherence, alike of convic- 
tion and of purpose, to the principle of arbitration in in- 
dustrial disputes; but matters have come to a sudden 
crisis in this particular dispute and the country had been 
caught unprovided with any practicable means of en- 



310 WOODROW WILSON 

forcing that conviction in practice (by whose fault we will 
not now stop to inquire) . A situation had tc be met whose 
elements and fixed conditions were indisputable. The 
practical and patriotic course to pursue, as it seemed to 
me, was to secure immediate peace by conceding the one 
thing in the demands of the men which society itself and 
any arbitrators who represented public sentiment were 
most likely to approve, and immediately lay the founda- 
tions for securing arbitration with regard to everything 
else involved. The event has confirmed that judgment. 

"I was seeking to compose the present in order to 
safeguard the future ; for I wished an atmosphere of peace 
and friendly cooperation in which to take counsel with the 
representatives of the nation with regard to the best 
means for providing, so far as it might prove possible to 
provide, against the recurrence of such unhappy situa- 
tions in the future — the best and most practicable means 
of securing calm and fair arbitration of all industrial dis- 
putes in the days to come. This is assuredly the best way 
of vindicating a principle, namely, having failed to make 
certain of its observance in the present, to make certain 
of its observance in the future. 

"But I could only propose. I could not govern the 
will of others who took an entirely different view of the 
circumstances of the case, who even refused to admit the 
circumstances to be what they have turned out to be. 

"Having failed to bring the parties to this critical 
controversy to an accommodation, therefore, I turn to you, 
deeming it clearly our duty as public servants to leave 
nothing undone that we can do to safeguard the life and 
interests of the nation. In the spirit of such a purpose, I 
earnestly recommend the following legislation: 

"First, immediate provision for the enlargement and 
administrative reorganization of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission along the lines embodied in the bill re- 
cently passed by the House of Representatives and now 
awaiting action by the Senate ; in order that the Commis- 



WOODROW WILSON 311 

sion may be enabled to deal with the many great and 
various duties now devolving upon it with a promptness 
and thoroughness which are with its present constitution 
and means of action practically impossible. 

1 ' Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as 
the legal basis alike of work and of wages in the employ- 
ment of all railway employees who are actually engaged in 
the work of operating trains in interstate transportation. 

1 ' Third, the authorization of the appointment by the 
President of a small body of men to observe the actual 
results in experience of the adoption of the eight-hour 
day in railway transportation alike for the men and for 
the railroads ; its effects in the matter of operating costs, 
in the application of the existing practices and agreements 
to the new conditions, and in all other practical aspects, 
with the provision that the investigators shall report their 
conclusions to the Congress at the earliest possible date, 
but without recommendation as to legislative action; in 
order that the public may learn from an unprejudiced 
source just what actual developments have ensued. 

" Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the 
consideration by the Interstate Commerce Commission of 
an increase of freight rates to meet such additional ex- 
penditures by the railroads as may have been rendered 
necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which 
have not been offset by administrative readjustments and 
economies, should the facts disclosed justify the increase. 

" Fifth, an amendment of the existing federal statute 
which provides for the mediation, conciliation, and arbi- 
tration of such controversies as the present by adding to 
it a provision that in case the methods of accommodation 
now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of 
the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and 
completed before a strike or lockout may lawfully be at- 
tempted. 

"And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the 
Executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to 



312 WOODROW WILSON 

take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the 
railways of the country as may be required for military 
use and to operate them for military purposes, with 
authority to draft into the military service of the United 
States such train crews and administrative officials as the 
circumstances require for their safe and efficient use. 

"This last suggestion I make because we cannot in 
any circumstances suffer the nation to be hampered in 
the essential matter of national defense. At the present 
moment circumstances render this duty particularly 
obvious. Almost the entire military force of the nation is 
stationed upon the Mexican border to guard our territory 
against hostile raids. It must be supplied, and steadily 
supplied, with whatever it needs for its maintenance and 
efficiency. If it should be necessary for purposes of na- 
tional defense to transfer any portion of it upon short 
notice to some other part of the country, for reasons now 
unforeseen, ample means of transportation must be avail- 
able, and available without delay. The power conferred 
in this matter should be carefully and explicitly limited to 
cases of military necessity, but in all such cases it should 
be clear and ample. 

1 ' There is one other thing we should do if we are true 
champions of arbitration. We should make all arbitral 
awards judgments by record of a court of law in order 
that their interpretation and enforcement may lie, not 
with one of the parties to the arbitration, but with an im- 
partial and authoritative tribunal. 

' ' These things I urge upon you, not in haste or merely 
as a means of meeting a present emergency, but as perma- 
nent and necessary additions to the law of the land* sug- 
gested, indeed, by circumstances we had hoped never to 
see, but imperative as well as just, if such emergencies are 
to be prevented in the future. I feel that no extended 
argument is needed to commend them to your favorable 
consideration. They demonstrate themselves. The time 
and the occasion only give emphasis to their importance. 




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WOODROW WILSON 317 

We need them now and we shall continue to need them." 
The President's request met with response from Con- 
gress and legislation settling the dispute was passed. The 
measure went to President Wilson on September 3rd, the 
day before the strike was to have been called, and a na- 
tional calamity was averted. The railroad companies sub- 
sequently took the law to the United States Supreme 
Court, where it was upheld. The result was an increased 
amount of confidence in the President by laboring men all 
over the country. 

While the controversy between the railroad com- 
panies and their employes was raging, the Republican and 
Democratic parties held their conventions. 



CHAPTER XIX 
PRESIDENT WILSON RENOMINATED. 

The Republican party was more formidable now than 
it bad been in 1912, when the diversion of Colonel Roose- 
velt and his followers had wrecked the Republican 
machine. The entire party stood united and laid stress 
on the fact that the United States would not accept the 
aggression of either Mexico or Germany in case their can- 
didate was elected. There was some rumor that Colonel 
Roosevelt would again enter the lists as a Progressive 
candidate, but he declined the nomination proffered him 
and urged his party to support the Republican nominee. 
After three days ' balloting, Charles Evans Hughes, a jus- 
tice in the United States Supreme Court, was nominated. 

The Democratic convention was held in St. Louis in 
June, 1916. Complete harmony prevailed and the session 
was concluded in two days with President Wilson and 
Vice-President Marshall again leading the ticket. 

Typewriting of the platform on which the committee 
on resolutions of the convention agreed, following an all- 
night session, delayed the final adjournment of the con- 
vention for one hour and twenty-five minutes. 

A speech burning with patriotic utterances was de- 
livered by United States Senator James A. Reed, of Mis- 
souri, who virtually charged that victory for the Repub- 
licans would mean war for the United States. 

Chairman James then presented to the convention 
Senator William A. Stone, chairman of the Resolution 
Committee. Senator Stone introduced Senators Thomas 
J. Walsh, of Montana, and Henry F. Hollis, of New 
Hampshire, who read the platform. 

"Under the American flag or under some other." 

318 



WOODROW WILSON 319 

That was the challenge to Americans written in the plat- 
form at President's Wilson's request. It contained con- 
demnation of all activities, whether by individuals, groups 
or organizations, in this country that conspired to assist 
any foreign power. It read : 

1 ' We charge that such conspiracies among a limited 
number exist and have been instigated for the purpose 
of advancing the interests of foreign countries to the 
prejudice and detriment of our own country. " 

The Americanism plank rang with the spirit of 
patriotism. That it was incorporated in the draft was a 
tribute to the unbending attitude of President Wilson, 
who wrote it, and who was opposed to changing its 
bristling declarations against the disloyalty of organiza- 
tions and groups which were working in the interests of 
foreign governments. 

It was the President's desire that the issue be a clean- 
cut one. Those members of the resolutions committee who 
wanted to approach it with timidity were met with the 
firm stand the President took on any political question. 

The challenge to the Republican party was included 
in these words : "We condemn any political party, which, 
in view of the activities of such conspirators, surrenders 
its integrity or modifies its policies." 

The platform put squarely before the country the 
record of the Wilson administration and Democratic Con- 
gress. The party went into the campaign ' ' pointing with 
pride" instead of criticising a Republican administration, 
as had been the case with campaigns for twenty years 
back. 

The laboring man and the farmer had benefited by 
Democratic legislation. Business was stabilized by the 
tariff federal trade commissions and federal reserve acts. 
The power of monopoly had been strangled and the 
burden of taxation was lightened by taxes on swollen 
fortunes. 

The foreign policy of the administration was upheld. 



320 WOODROW WILSON 

Intervention in Mexico would have led to a demand for 
subjugation of that country, a course revolting to the 
United States. 

The plan and legislation of the Democratic Congress 
were proof of the party's stand on preparedness and the 
upbuilding of the army and navy. 

After the convention was called to order, prayer was 
offered by Rabbi Leon Harrison, of St. Louis, who gave 
thanks for the great leader of the nation, wielding no 
strong arm of flesh, but who had been triumphant in his 
invincible plea for justice and humanity. He gave thanks 
for "the wise and noble President of the United States, 
who warded off disaster, who with firm and fearless hand 
has steered us between the menace of both warfare and 
dishonor, assuring the people peace without shame, a 
proud peace, with head erect and a dignity undiminished. ' ' 

Unexpectedly there was a clash over a proposal for 
a prohibition plank. When William Jennings Bryan, an 
advocate of a dry nation, declared that he would make no 
fight for a prohibition plank, it was believed that the com- 
mittee easily would vote down any attempt to insert such 
a bill into the platform. 

Members of the committee were in constant com- 
munication with President Wilson over the telephone wire 
at the White House until finally the Americanism plank 
was whipped into satisfactory shape and the mainstay of 
the party's declaration of principles was agreed upon. 
President Wilson had been aroused by opposition to the 
Americanism plank and had made the plea that it must 
be incorporated and must meet his ideas. 

The President gained his point by threatening to 
come to St. Louis and personally present the plank before 
the delegates. 

The messages from Washington had the intended 
effect and when Senator Stone, after talking with the 
President, reported back to the committee, the plank was 
found to fit nicely into the platform. 



WOODROW WILSON 321 

The delegates for party leaders had listened to a 
wonderful speech by Mr. Bryan, in which he praised the 
President, with whom he had severed official relations a 
year before, when they failed to agree upon the Presi- 
dent's foreign and preparedness policies. 

Mr. Bryan's speech brushed aside all doubts that 
there would be harmonious action in the campaign, for the 
leaders who were not on the committee were not in a 
humor to have the peace that reigned in the party spoiled. 

Under the suspension of the rules, the nominations 
of President Wilson and Vice-President Marshall were 
made by acclamation. 

President Wilson made his speech of acceptance on 
September 2nd. He said : 

"I cannot accept the leadership and responsibility 
which the National Democratic Convention has again, in 
such generous fashion, asked me to accept without first 
expressing my profound gratitude to the party for the 
trust it reposes in me after four years of fiery trial in 
the midst of affairs of unprecedented difficulty, and the 
keen sense of added responsibility with which this honor 
fills (I had almost said burdens) me as I think of the great 
issues of national life and policy involved in the present 
and immediate future conduct of our Government. I 
shall seek, as I have always sought, to justify the extraor- 
dinary confidence thus reposed in me by striving to purge 
my heart and purpose of every personal and of every mis- 
leading party motive and devoting every energy I have 
to the service of the nation as a whole, praying that I may 
continue to have the counsel and support of all forward- 
looking men at every turn of the difficult business. 

"For I do not doubt that the people of the United 
States will wish the Democratic party to continue in con- 
trol of the Government. They are not in the habit of 
rejecting those who have actually served them for those 
who are making doubtful and conjectural promises of ser- 
vice. Least of all are they likely to substitute those who 



322 WOODROW WILSON 

promised to render them particular services and proved 
false to that promise for those who have actually rendered 
those very services. 

1 ' Boasting is always an empty business, which pleases 
nobody but the boaster, and I have no disposition to boast 
of what the Democratic party has accomplished. It has 
merely done its duty. It has merely fulfilled its explicit 
promises. But there can be no violation of good taste in 
calling attention to the manner in which those promises 
have been carried out or in adverting to the interesting 
fact that many of the things accomplished were what the 
opposition party had again and again promised to do but 
had left undone. Indeed, that is manifestly part of the 
business of this year of reckoning and assessment. There 
is no means of judging the future except by assessing the 
past. Constructive action must be weighed against de- 
structive comment and reaction. The Democrats either 
have or have not understood the varied interests of the 
country. The test is contained in the record. 

"What is that record? What were the Democrats 
called into power to do ? What things had long waited to 
be done, and how did the Democrats do them? It is a 
record of extraordinary length and variety, rich in ele- 
ments of many kinds, but consistent in principle through- 
out and susceptible of brief recital. 

"The Republican party was put out of power because 
of failure, practical failure and moral failure ; because it 
had served special interests and not the country at large ; 
because, under the leadership of its preferred and estab- 
lished guides, of those who still make its choice, it had lost 
touch with the thoughts and the needs of the nation and 
was living in a past age and under a fixed illusion, the 
illusion of greatness. It had framed tariff laws based 
upon a fear of foreign trade, a fundamental doubt as to 
American skill, enterprise, and capacity, and a very tender 
regard for the profitable privileges of those who had 
gained control of domestic markets and domestic credits ; 



WOODROW WILSON 323 

and yet had enacted anti-trust laws which hampered the 
very things they meant to foster, which were stiff and 
inelastic, and in part unintelligible. It had permitted the 
country throughout the long period of its control to stag- 
ger from one financial crisis to another under the opera- 
tion of a national banking law of its own framing which 
made stringency and panic certain and the control of the 
larger business operations of the country by the bankers 
of a few reserve centers inevitable; had made as if it 
meant to reform the law but had faint-heartedly failed in 
the attempt, because it could not bring itself to do the one 
thing necessary to make the reform genuine and effectual, 
namely, break up the control of small groups of bankers. 
It had been oblivious, or indifferent, to the fact that the 
farmers, upon whom the country depends for its food and 
in the last analysis for its prosperity, were without stand- 
ing in the matter of commercial credit, without the protec- 
tion of standards in their market transactions, and with- 
out systematic knowledge of the markets themselves ; that 
the laborers of the country, the great army of men who 
man the industries it was professing to father and pro- 
mote, carried their labor as a mere commodity to market, 
were subject to restraint by novel and drastic process in 
the courts, were without assurance of compensation for 
industrial accidents, without federal assistance in ac- 
commodating labor disputes, and without national aid or 
advice in finding the places and the industries in which 
their labor was most needed. The country had no national 
system of road construction and development. Little in- 
telligent attention was paid to the army, and not enough 
to the navy. The other republics of America distrusted 
us, because they found that we thought first of the profits 
of American investors and only as an afterthought qf im- 
partial justice and helpful friendship. Its policy was pro- 
vincial in all things; its purposes were out of harmony 
with the temper and purpose of the people and the timely 
development of the nation's interests. 



324 ;WOODROW WILSON 

"So things stood when the Democratic party came 
into power. How do they stand now? Alike in the do- 
mestic field and in the wide field of the commerce of the 
world, American business and life and industry have been 
set free to move as they never moved before. 

"The tariff has been revised, not on the principle of 
repelling foreign trade, but upon the principle of en- 
couraging it, upon something like a footing of equality 
with our own in respect of the terms of competition, and 
a Tariff Board has been created whose function it will be 
to keep the relations of America with foreign business 
and industry under constant observation, for the guidance 
alike of our business men and of our Congress. American 
energies are now directed towards the markets of the 
world. 

"The laws against trusts have been clarified by defi- 
nition, with a view to making it plain that they were not 
directed against big business but only against unfair 
business and the pretense of competition where there was 
none ; and a Trade Commission has been created with pow- 
ers of guidance and accommodation which have relieved 
business men of unfounded fears and set them upon the 
road of hopeful and confident enterprise. 

' ' By the Federal Reserve Act the supply of currency 
at the disposal of active business has been rendered elastic, 
taking its volume, not from a fixed body of investment 
securities, but from the liquid assets of daily trade ; and 
these assets are assessed and accepted, not by distant 
groups of bankers in control of unavailable reserves, but 
by bankers at the many centers of local exchange who are 
in touch with local conditions everywhere. 

' ' Effective measures have been taken for the re-crea- 
tion of an American merchant marine and the revival of 
the American carrying trade indispensable to our emanci- 
pation from the control which foreigners have so long 
exercised over the opportunities, the routes, and the meth- 
ods of our commerce with other countries. 



WOODROW WILSON 325 

"The Interstate Commerce Commission has been 
reorganized to enable it to perform its great and im- 
portant functions more promptly and more efficiently. 
We have created, extended and improved the service of 
the parcels post. 

"So much we have done for business. What other 
party has understood the task so well or executed it so 
intelligently and energetically? What other party has 
attempted it at all? The Republican leaders, apparently 
know of no means of assisting business but "protection." 
How to stimulate it and put it upon a new footing of 
energy and enterprise they have not suggested. 

"For the farmers of the country we have virtually 
created commercial credit, by means of the Federal Re- 
serve Act and the Rural Credits Act. They now have 
the standing of other business men in the money market. 
We have successfully regulated speculation in "futures" 
and established standards in the marketing of grains. By 
an intelligent Warehouse Act we have assisted to make 
the standard crops available as never before both for sys- 
tematic marketing and as a security for loans from the 
banks. We have greatly added to the work of neighbor- 
hood demonstration on the farm itself of improved 
methods of cultivation, and, through the intelligent exten- 
sion of the functions of the Department of Agriculture, 
have made it possible for the farmer to learn systematic- 
ally where his best markets are and how to get at them. 

"The workingmen of America have been given a ver- 
itable emancipation, by the legal recognition of a man's 
labor as part of his life, and not a mere marketable com- 
modity ; by exempting labor organizations from processes 
of the courts which treated their members like fractional 
parts of mobs and not like accessible and responsible indi- 
viduals ; by releasing our seamen from involuntary servi- 
tude ; by making adequate provision for compensation for 
industrial accidents ; by providing suitable machinery for 
mediation and conciliation in industrial disputes ; and by 



326 WOODKOW WILSON 

putting the Federal Department of Labor at the disposal 
of the workingman when in search of work. 

"We have effected the emancipation of the children 
of the country by releasing them from hurtful labor. We 
have instituted a system of national aid in the building 
of highroads such as the country has been feeling after 
for a century. We have sought to equalize taxation by 
means of an equitable income tax. We have taken the 
steps that ought to have been taken at the outset to open 
up the resources of Alaska. We have provided for na- 
tional defense upon a scale never before seriously pro- 
posed upon the responsibility of an entire political party. 
We have driven the tariff lobby from cover and obliged 
it to substitute solid argument for private influence. 

"This extraordinary recital must sound like a plat- 
form, a list of sanguine promises ; but it is not. It is a 
record of promises made four years ago and now actually 
redeemed in constructive legislation. 

1 ' These things must profoundly disturb the thoughts 
and confound the plans of those wdio have made them- 
selves believe that the Democratic Party neither under- 
stood nor was ready to assist the business of the country 
in the great enterprises which it is its evident and inevit- 
able destiny to undertake and carry through. The break- 
ing up of the lobby must especially disconcert them ; for 
it was through the lobby that they sought and were sure 
they had found the heart of things. The game of priv- 
ilege can be played successfully by no other means. 

"This record must equally astonish those who feared 
that the Democratic Party had not opened its heart to 
comprehend the demands of social justice. We have in 
four years come very near to carrying out the platform 
of the Progressive Party as well as our own ; for we also 
are progressives. 

1 ( There is one circumstance connected with this pro- 
gramme which ought to be very plainly stated. It was 
resisted at every step by the interests which the Repub- 



WOODROW WILSON 327 

lican Party had catered to and fostered at the expense of 
the country, and these same interests are now earnestly 
praying for a reaction which will save their privileges, — 
for the restoration of their sworn friends to power before 
it is too late to recover what they have lost. They fought 
with particular desperation and infinite resourcefulness 
the reform of the banking and currency system, knowing 
that to be the citadel of their control ; and most anxiously 
are they hoping and planning for the amendment of the 
Federal Reserve Act by the concentration of control in 
a single bank which the old familiar group of bankers 
can keep under their eye and direction. But while the 
'big men' who used to write the tariffs and command the 
assistance of the Treasury have been hostile, — all but a 
few with vision, — the average business man knows that 
he has been delivered, and that the fear that was once 
every day in his heart, that the men who controlled credit 
and directed enterprise from the committee rooms of Con- 
gress would crush him, is there no more, and will not 
return, — unless the party that consulted only the 'big 
men' should return to power, — the party of masterly 
inactivity and cunning resourcefulness in standing pat to 
resist change. 

"The Republican Party is just the party that cannot 
meet the new conditions of a new age. It does not know 
the way and it does not wish new conditions. It tried to 
break away from the old leaders and could not. They 
still select its candidates and dictate its policy, still resist 
change, still hanker after the old conditions, still know 
no methods of encouraging business but the old methods. 
When it changes its leaders and its purposes and brings 
its ideas up to date it will have the right to ask the Ameri- 
can people to give it power again; but not until then. 
A new age, an age of revolutionary change, needs new 
purposes and new ideas. 

' ' In foreign affairs we have been guided by principles 
clearly conceived and consistently lived up to. Perhaps 



328 WOODROW WILSON 

they have not been fully comprehended because they have 
hitherto governed international affairs only in theory, 
not in practice. They are simple, obvious, easily stated, 
and fundamental to American ideals. 

"We have been neutral not only because it was the 
fixed and traditional policy of the United States to stand 
aloof from the politics of Europe and because we had had 
no part either of action or of policy in the influences which 
brought on the present war, but also because it was mani- 
festly our duty to prevent, if it were possible, the indefinite 
extension of the fires of hate and desolation kindled by 
that terrible conflict and seek to serve mankind by reserv- 
ing our strength and our resources for the anxious and 
difficult days of restoration and healing which must follow, 
when peace will have to build its house anew. 

"The rights of our own citizens of course became in- 
volved : that was inevitable. Where they did this was our 
guiding principle: that property rights can be vindi- 
cated by claims for damages when the war is over, and 
no modern nation can decline to arbitrate such claims; 
but the fundamental rights of humanity cannot be. The 
loss of life is irreparable. Neither can direct violations 
of a nation's sovereignty await vindication in suits for 
damages. The nation that violates these essential rights 
must expect to be checked and called to account by direct 
challenge and resistance. It at once makes the quarrel 
in part our own. These are plain principles and we have 
never lost sight of them or departed from them, whatever 
the stress or the perplexity of circumstances or the provo- 
cation to hasty resentment. The record is clear and con- 
sistent throughout and stands distinct and definite for 
anyone to judge who wishes to know the truth about it. 

1 ' The seas were not broad enough to keep the infec- 
tion of the conflict out of our own politics. The passions 
and intrigues of certain active groups and combinations 
of men amongst us who were born under foreign flags 
injected the poison of disloyalty into our own most critical 



WOODROW WILSON 329 

affairs, laid violent hands upon many of our industries, 
and subjected us to the shame of divisions of sentiment 
and purpose in which America was contemned and for- 
gotten. It is part of the business of this year of reckoning 
and settlement to speak plainly and act with unmistakable 
purpose in rebuke of these things, in order that they may 
be forever hereafter impossible. I am the candidate for 
a party, but I am above all things else an American citi- 
zen. I neither seek the favor nor fear the displeasure of 
that small alien element amongst us which puts loyalty to 
any foreign power before loyalty to the United States. 

"While Europe was at war our own continent, one 
of our own neighbors, was shaken by revolution. In that 
matter, too, principle was plain and it was imperative 
that we should live up to it if we were to deserve the trust 
of any real partisan of the right as free men see it. We 
have professed to believe, and we do believe, that the 
people of small and weak states have the right to expect 
to be dealt with exactly as the people of big and powerful 
states would be. We have acted upon that principle in 
dealing with the people of Mexico. 

"Our recent pursuit of bandits into Mexican terri- 
tory was no violation of that principle. We ventured to 
enter Mexican territory only because there were no mili- 
tary forces in Mexico that could protect our border from 
hostile attack and our own people from violence, and we 
have committed there no single act of hostility or inter- 
ference even with the sovereign authority of the Republic 
of Mexico herself. It was a plain case of the violation 
of our own sovereignty which could not wait to be vindi- 
cated by damages and for which there was no other rem- 
edy. The authorities of Mexico were powerless to 
prevent it. 

"Many serious wrongs against the property, many 
irreparable wrongs against the persons, of Americans 
have been committed within the territory of Mexico her- 
self during this confused revolution, wrongs which could 



330 WOODROW WILSON 

not be effectually checked so long as there was no consti- 
tuted power in Mexico which was in a position to check 
them. We could not act directly in that matter ourselves 
without denying Mexicans the right to any revolution at 
all which disturbed us and making the emancipation of 
her own people await our own interest and convenience. 
"For it is their emancipation that they are seeking, — 
blindly, it may be, and as yet ineffectually, but with pro- 
found and passionate purpose and within their unques- 
tionable right, apply what true American principle you 
will, — any principle that an American would publicly 
avow. The people of Mexico have not been suffered to 
own their own country or direct their own institutions. 
Outsiders, men out of other nations and with interests too 
often alien to their own, have dictated what their priv- 
ileges and opportunities should be and who should control 
their land, their lives, and their resources, — some of them 
Americans, pressing for things they could never have 
got in their own country. The Mexican people are entitled 
to attempt their liberty from such influences ; and so long 
as I have anything to do with the action of our great Gov- 
ernment I shall do everything in my power to prevent any- 
one standing in their way. I know that this is hard for 
some persons to understand; but it is not hard for the 
plain people of the United States to understand. It is 
hard doctrine only for those who wish to get something 
for themselves out of Mexico. There are men, and noble 
women, too, not a few, of our own people, thank God! 
whose fortunes are invested in great properties in Mexico 
who yet see the case with true vision and assess its issues 
with true American feeling. The rest can be left for the 
present out of the reckoning until this enslaved people has 
had its day of struggle towards the light. I have heard 
no one who was free from such influences propose inter- 
ference by the United States with the internal affairs of 
Mexico. Certainly no friend of the Mexican people has 
proposed it. 



WOODROW WILSON 331 

' ' The people of the United States are capable of great 
sympathies and a noble pity in dealing with problems of 
this kind. As their spokesman and representative, I have 
tried to act in the spirit they would wish me show. The 
people of Mexico are striving for the rights that are fun- 
damental to life and happiness, — fifteen million oppressed 
men, overburdened women, and pitiful children in virtual 
bondage in their own home of fertile lands and inexhaust- 
ible treasure ! Some of the leaders of the revolution may 
often have been mistaken and violent and selfish, but the 
revolution itself was inevitable and is right. The un- 
speakable Huerta betrayed the very comrades he served, 
traitorously overthrew the government of which he was 
a trusted part, impudently spoke for the very forces that 
had driven his people to the rebellion with which he had 
pretended to sympathize. The men who overcame him 
and drove him out represent at least the fierce passion of 
reconstruction which lies at the very heart of liberty ; and 
so long as they represent, however imperfectly, such a 
struggle for deliverance, I am ready to serve their ends 
when I can. So long as the power of recognition rests 
with me the Government of the United States will refuse 
to extend the hand of welcome to any one who obtains 
power in a sister republic by treachery and violence. No 
permanency can be given the affairs of any republic by 
a title based upon intrigue and assassination. I declared 
that to be the policy of this Administration within three 
weeks after I assumed the presidency. I here again vow 
it. I am more interested in the fortunes of oppressed men 
and pitiful women and children than in any property 
rights whatever. Mistakes I have no doubt made in this 
perplexing business, but not in purpose or object. 

"More is involved than the immediate destinies of 
Mexico and the relations of the United States with a dis- 
tressed and distracted people. All America looks on. 
Test is now being made of us whether we be sincere lovers 
of popular liberty or not and are indeed to be trusted to 



332 WOODROW WILSON 

respect national sovereignty among our weaker neigh- 
bors. We have undertaken these many years to play big 
brother to the republics of this hemisphere. This is the 
day of our test whether we mean, or have ever meant, to 
play that part for our own benefit wholly or also for 
theirs. Upon the outcome of that test (its outcome in 
their minds, not in ours) depends every relationship of 
the United States with Latin America, whether in politics 
or in commerce and enterprise. These are great issues 
and lie at the heart of the gravest tasks of the future, 
tasks both economic and political and very intimately in- 
wrought with many of the most vital of the new issues of 
the politics of the world. The republics of America have 
in the last three years been drawing together in a new 
spirit of accommodation, mutual understanding, and cor- 
dial cooperation. Much of the politics of the world in the 
years to come will depend upon their relationships with 
one another. It is a barren and provincial statesmanship 
that loses sight of such things ! 

"The future, the immediate future, will bring us 
squarely face to face with many great and exacting prob- 
lems which will search us through and through whether 
we be able and ready to play the part in the world that we 
mean to play. It will not bring us into their presence 
slowly, gently, with ceremonious introduction, but sud- 
denly and at once, the moment the war in Europe is over. 
They will be new problems, most of them; many will be 
old problems in a new setting and with new elements which 
we have never dealt with or reckoned the force and mean- 
ing of before. They will require for their solution new 
thinking, fresh courage and resourcefulness, and in some 
matters radical reconsiderations of policy. We must be 
ready to mobilize our resources alike of. brains and of 
materials. 

"It is not a future to be afraid of. It is, rather, a 
future to stimulate and excite us to the display of the best 
powers that are in us. We may enter it with confidence 




The President on the Streets of Washington. 



WOODROW WILSON 337 

when we are sure that we understand it, — and we have 
provided ourselves already with the means of under- 
standing it. 

"Look first at what it will be necessary that the 
nations of the world should do to make the days to come 
tolerable and fit to live and work in ; and then look at our 
part in what is to follow and our own duty of preparation. 
For we must be prepared both in resources and in policy. 

"There must be a just and settled peace, and we here 
in America must contribute the full force of our enthu- 
siasm and of our authority as a nation to the organization 
of that peace upon world-wide foundations that cannot 
easily be shaken. No nation should be forced to take sides 
in any quarrel in which its own honor and integrity and 
the fortunes of its own people are not involved; but no 
nation can any longer remain neutral as against any wil- 
ful disturbance of the peace of the world. The effects of 
war can no longer be confined to the areas of battle. No 
nation stands wholly apart in interest when the life and 
interests of all nations are thrown into confusion and 
peril. If hopeful and generous enterprise is to be re- 
newed, if the healing and helpful arts of life are indeed 
to be revived when peace comes again, a new atmosphere 
of justice and friendship must be generated by means the 
world has never tried before. The nations of the world 
must unite in joint guarantees that whatever is done to 
disturb the whole world's life must first be tested in the 
court of the whole world's opinion before it is attempted. 

"These are the new foundations the world must build 
for itself, and we must play our part in the reconstruction, 
generously and without too much thought of our separate 
interests. We must make ourselves ready to play it intel- 
ligently, vigorously and well. 

"One of the contributions we must make to the 
world's peace is this : We must see to it that the people 
in our insular possessions are treated in their own lands 
as we would treat them here, and make the rule of the 



338 WOODROW WILSON 

United States mean the same thing everywhere, — the 
same justice, the same consideration for the essential 
rights of men. 

4 'Besides contributing our ungrudging moral and 
practical support to the establishment of peace through- 
out the world we must actively and intelligently prepare 
ourselves to do our full service in the trade and industry 
which are to sustain and develop the life of the nations in 
the days to come. 

"We have already been provident in this great mat- 
ter and supplied ourselves with the instrumentalities of 
prompt adjustment. We have created, in the Federal 
Trade Commission, a means of inquiry and of accommo- 
dation in the field of commerce which ought both to coor- 
dinate the enterprises of our traders and manufacturers 
and to remove the barriers of misunderstanding and of a 
too technical interpretation of the law. In the new Tariff 
Commission we have added another instrumentality of 
observation and adjustment which promises to be imme- 
diately serviceable. The Trade Commission substitutes 
counsel and accommodation for the harsher processes of 
legal restraint, and the Tariff Commission ought to sub- 
stitute facts for prejudices and theories. Our exporters 
have for some time had the advantage of working in the 
new light thrown upon foreign markets and opportunities 
of trade by the intelligent inquiries and activities of the 
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce which the 
Democratic Congress so wisely created in 1912. The 
Tariff Commission completes the machinery by which we 
shall be enabled to open up our legislative policy to the 
facts as they develop. 

"We can no longer indulge our traditional provin- 
cialism. We are to play a leading part in the world drama 
whether we wish it or not. We shall lend, not borrow; 
act for ourselves, not imitate or follow; organize and 
initiate, not peep about merely to see where we may get in. 

"We have already formulated and agreed upon a 



WOODROW WILSON 339 

policy of law which will explicitly remove the ban now 
supposed to rest upon cooperation amongst our exporters 
in seeking and securing their proper place in the markets 
of the world. The field will be free, the instrumentalities 
at hand. It will only remain for the masters of enterprise 
amongst us to act in energetic concert, and for the Gov- 
ernment of the United States to insist upon the mainte- 
nance throughout the world of those conditions of fair- 
ness and of even-handed justice in the commercial deal- 
ings of the nations with one another upon which, after all, 
in the last analysis, the peace and ordered life of the world 
must ultimately depend. 

"At home also we must see to it that the men who 
plan and develop and direct our business enterprises shall 
enjoy definite and settled conditions of law, a policy ac- 
commodated to the freest progress. We have set the just 
and necessary limits. We have put all kinds of unfair 
competition under the ban and penalty of the law. We 
have barred monopoly. These fatal and ugly things being- 
excluded, we must now quicken action and facilitate enter- 
prise by every just means within our choice. There will 
be peace in the business world, and, with peace, revived 
confidence and life. 

"We ought both to husband and to develop our nat- 
ural resources, our mines, our forests, our water power. 
I wish we could have made more progress than we have 
made in this vital matter ; and I call once more, with the 
deepest earnestness and solicitude, upon the advocates of 
a careful and provident conservation, on the one hand, 
and the advocates of a free and inviting field for private 
capital, on the other, to get together in a spirit of genuine 
accommodation and agreement and set this great policy 
forward at once. 

"We must hearten and quicken the spirit and effi- 
ciency of labor throughout our whole industrial system 
by everywhere and in all occupations doing justice to the 
laborer, not only by paying a living wage but also by 



340 WOODROW WILSON 

making all the conditions that surround labor what they 
ought to be. And we must do more than justice. We 
must safeguard life and promote health and safety in 
every occupation in which they are threatened or imper- 
illed. That is more than justice, and better, because it is 
humanity and economy. 

"We must coordinate the railway systems of the 
country for national use, and must facilitate and promote 
their development with a view to that coordination and to 
their better adaptation as a whole to the life and trade and 
defense of the nation. The life and industry of the coun- 
try can be free and unhampered only if these arteries are 
open, efficient, and complete. 

"Thus shall we stand ready to meet the future as 
circumstance and international policy effect their unfold- 
ing, whether the changes come slowly or come fast and 
without preface. 

' ' I have not spoken explicitly, gentlemen, of the plat- 
form adopted at St. Louis ; but it has been implicit in all 
that I have said. I have sought to interpret its spirit 
and meaning. The people of the United States do not 
need to be assured now that that platform is a definite 
pledge, a practical programme. We have proved to them 
that our promises are made to be kept. 

"We hold very definite ideals. We believe that the 
energy and initiative of our people have been too nar- 
rowly coached and superintended; that they should be 
set free, as we have set them free, to disperse themselves 
throughout the nation; that they should not be concen- 
trated in the hands of a few powerful guides and guard- 
ians, as our opponents have again and again, in effect if 
not in purpose, sought to concentrate them. We believe, 
moreover, — who that looks about him now with compre- 
hending eye can fail to believe? — that the day of Little 
Americanism, with its narrow horizons, when methods of 
'protection' and industrial nursing were the chief study 
of our provincial statesmen, are past and gone and that 



WOODROW WILSON 341 

a day of enterprise has at last dawned for the United 
States whose field is the wide world. 

"We hope to see the stimulus of that new day draw 
all America, the republics of both continents, on to a new 
life and energy and initiative in the great affairs of 
peace. We are Americans for Big America, and rejoice 
to look forward to the days in which America shall strive 
to stir the world without irritating it or drawing it on to 
new antagonisms, when the nations with which we deal 
shall at last come to see upon what deep foundations of 
humanity and justice our passion for peace rests, and 
when all mankind shall look upon our great people with a 
new sentiment of admiration, friendly rivalry and real 
affection, as upon a people who, though keen to succeed, 
seeks always to be at once generous and just and to whom 
humanity is dearer than profit or selfish power. 

"Upon this record and in the faith of this purpose 
we go to the country. ' ' 



CHAPTER XX 
PRESIDENT WILSON RE-ELECTED. 

The presidential campaign and election in 1916 was 
one of the bitterest in the history of the United States. 
There were so many disconcerting issues before the public 
that the average man did not know which way to turn. 
The air was filled with the clarion calls of the war party 
on one hand and the shouts of the pacifists on the other. 
Capital was arrayed against labor and the middle class 
gravitated between the two. 

The Republican party used every means in its power 
to insure the election of its candidate. The quarrel of 
1912 between the Republicans and Progressives was for- 
gotten in the struggle. "Too proud to fight" was their 
slogan. They chose to attack President Wilson's policies 
rather than extoll the virtues of Justice Hughes. 

The Democrats were not guiltless of vituperation. 
They branded Hughes as a corporation lawyer and de- 
clared that Wall Street would be established as the capital 
of the United States in case he was elected. They replied 
to the cry of the Republicans with "He kept us out of 
war. ' ' 

President Wilson departed for the West immediately 
after accepting the nomination for the sole purpose 
of attending the dedication ceremonies of the Lincoln 
Memorial erected on the site of the log cabin in which 
the great civil war leader was born. He arrived in 
Hodgenville, Ky., on September 4th, and once more 
stirred the patriotic feelings of his listeners. His address 
follows : 

' ' No more significant memorial could have been pre- 
sented to the nation than this. It expresses so much of 

342 



WOODROW WILSON 343 

what is singular and noteworthy in the history of the 
country; it suggests so many of the things that we prize 
most highly in our life and in our system of government. 
How eloquent this little house within this shrine is of 
the vigor of democracy! There is nowhere in the land 
any home so remote, so humble, that it may not contain 
the power of mind and heart and conscience to which 
nations yield and history submits its processes. Nature 
pays no tribute to aristocracy, subscribes to no creed of 
caste, renders fealty to no monarch or master of any name 
or kind. Genius is no snob. It does not run after titles 
or seek by preference the high circles of society. It 
affects humble company as well as great. It pays no spe- 
cial tribute to universities or learned societies or conven- 
tional standards of greatness, but serenely chooses its 
own comrades, its own haunts, its own cradle even, and 
its own life of adventure and of training. Here is proof 
of it. This little hut was the cradle of one of the great 
sons of men, a man of singular, delightful, vital genius 
who presently emerged upon the great stage of the na- 
tion's history, gaunt, shy, ungainly, but dominant and 
majestic, a natural ruler of men, himself inevitably the 
central figure of the great plot. No man can explain this, 
but every man can see how it demonstrates the vigor of 
democracy, where every door is open, in every hamlet and 
countryside, in city and wilderness alike, for the ruler to 
emerge when he will and claim his leadership in the free 
life. Such are the authentic proofs of the validity and 
vitality of democracy. 

"Here, no less, hides the mystery of democracy. Who 
shall guess this secret of nature and providence and a 
free polity? Whatever the vigor and vitality of the stock 
from which he sprang, its mere vigor and soundness do 
not explain where this man got his great heart that 
seemed to comprehend all mankind in its catholic and 
benignant sympathy, the mind that sat enthroned behind 
those brooding, melancholy eyes, whose vision swept many 



344 WOODROW WILSON 

an horizon which those about him dreamed not of, that 
mind that comprehended what it had never seen, and un- 
derstood the language of affairs with the ready ease of 
one to the manner born — or that nature which seemed in 
its varied richness to be the familiar of men of every way 
of life. This is the sacred mystery of democracy, that its 
richest fruits spring up out of soils which no man has pre- 
pared and in circumstances amidst which they are the 
least expected. This is a place alike of mystery and of 
reassurance. 

"It is likely that in a society ordered otherwise than 
our own Lincoln could not have found himself or the path 
of fame and power upon which he walked serenely to his 
death. In this place it is right that we should remind our- 
selves of the solid and striking facts upon which our faith 
in democracy is founded. Many another man besides Lin- 
coln has served the nation in its highest places of counsel 
and of action whose origins were as humble as his. Though 
the greatest example of the universal energy, richness, 
stimulation, and force of democracy, he is only one ex- 
ample among many. The permeating and all-pervasive 
virtue of the freedom which challenges us in America to 
make the most of every gift and power we possess every 
page of our history serves to emphasize and illustrate. 
Standing here in this place, it seems almost the whole of 
the stirring story. 

' ' Here Lincoln had his beginnings. Here the end and 
consummation of that great life seem remote and a bit 
incredible. And yet there was no break anywhere between 
beginning and end, no lack of natural sequence anywhere. 
Nothing really incredible happened. Lincoln was unaf- 
fectedly as much at home in the White House as he was 
here. Do you share with me the feeling, I wonder, that 
he was permanently at home nowhere? It seems to me 
that in the case of a man — I would rather say of a spirit — 
like Lincoln the question where he was is of little signifi- 
cance, that it is always what he was that really arrests our 



WOODROW WILSON 345 

thought and takes hold of our imagination. It is the spirit 
always that is sovereign. Lincoln, like the rest of us, wa;; 
put through the discipline of the world — a very rough and 
exacting discipline for him, an indispensable discipline 
for every man who would know what he is about in the 
midst of the world's affairs; but his spirit got only its 
schooling there. It did not derive its character or its 
vision from the experiences which brought it to its full 
revelation. The test of every American must always be, 
not where he is, but what he is. That, also, is of the es- 
sence of democracy, and is the moral of which this place 
is most gravely expressive. 

' ' We would like to think of men like Lincoln and Wash- 
ington as typical Americans, but no man can be typical 
who is so unusual as these great men were. It was typical 
of American life that it should produce such men with 
supreme indifference as to the manner in which it pro- 
duced them, and as readily here in this hut as amidst the 
little circle of cultivated gentlemen to whom Virginia 
owed so much in leadership and example. And Lincoln 
and Washington were typical Americans in the use they 
made of their genius. But there will be few such men at 
best, and we will not look into the mystery of how and 
why they come. We will only keep the door open for them 
always, and a hearty welcome — after we have recognized 
them. 

"I have read many biographies of Lincoln; I have 
sought out with the greatest interest the many intimate 
stories that are told of him, the narratives of nearby 
friends, the sketches at close quarters, in which those who 
had the privilege of being associated with him have tried 
to depict for us the very man himself 'in his habit as he 
lived ; ' but I have nowhere found a real intimate of Lin- 
coln 's. I nowhere get the impression in any narrative or 
reminiscence that the writer had in fact penetrated to the 
heart of his mystery, or that any man could penetrate to 
the heart of it. That brooding spirit had no real famil- 



346 WOODROW WILSON 

iars. I get the impression that it never spoke out in com- 
plete self-revelation, and that it could not reveal itself 
completely to anyone. It was a very lonely spirit that 
looked out from underneath those shaggy brows and com- 
prehended men without fully communing with them, as if, 
in spite of all its genial efforts at comradeship, it dwelt 
apart, saw its visions of duty where no man looked on. 
There is a very holy and very terrible isolation for the 
conscience of every man who seeks to read the destiny in 
affairs for others as well as for himself, for a nation as 
well as for individuals. That privacy no man can intrude 
upon. That lonely search of the spirit for the right per- 
haps no man can assist. This strange child of the cabin 
kept company with invisible things, was born into no 
intimacy but that of its own silently assembling and 
deploying thoughts. 

''I have come here today, not to utter a eulogy on 
Lincoln; he stands in need of none, but to endeavor to 
interpret the meaning of this gift to the nation of the place 
of his birth and origin. Is not this an altar upon which 
we may forever keep alive the vestal fire of democracy 
as upon a shrine at which some of the deepest and most 
sacred hopes of mankind may from age to age be re- 
kindled? For these hopes must constantly be rekindled, 
and only those who live can rekindle them. The only stuff 
that can retain the life-giving heat is the stuff of living 
hearts. And the hopes of mankind cannot be kept alive 
by words merely, by constitutions and doctrines of right 
and codes of liberty. The object of democracy is to trans- 
mute these into the life and action of society, the self- 
denial and self-sacrifice of heroic men and women willing 
to make their lives an embodiment of right and service 
and enlightened purpose. The commands of democracy 
are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are 
wide and generous. Its compulsion is upon us. It will be 
great and lift a great light for the guidance of the nations 
only if we are great and carry that light high for the 






WOODROW WILSON 347 

guidance of our own feet. We are not worthy to stand 
here unless we ourselves be in deed and in truth real 
democrats and servants of mankind, ready to give our 
very lives for the freedom and justice and spiritual 
exaltation of the great nation which shelters and nur- 
tures us." 

He then returned east and accepted an invitation to 
appear on September 8th before the Woman Suffrage 
Convention which was in session in Atlantic City, N. J. 
True to his ideals, he told the convention that he was in 
favor of the States deciding the universal suffrage ques- 
tion and insisted it was not a national issue. His address 
follows : 

"Madam President, Ladies of the Association: The 
astonishing thing about the movement which you repre- 
sent is, not that it has grown so slowly, but that it has 
grown so rapidly. No doubt for those who have been a 
long time in the struggle, like your honored president, it 
seems a long and arduous path that has been trodden, but 
when you think of the cumulating force of this movement 
in recent decades, you must agree with me that it is one 
of the most astonishing tides in modern history. Two 
generations ago, no doubt Madam President will agree 
with me in saying, it was a handful of women who were 
fighting this cause. Now it is a great multitude of women 
who are fighting it. 

"And there are some interesting historical connec- 
tions which I would like to attempt to point out to you. 
One of the most striking facts about the history of the 
United States is that at the outset it was a lawyers' his- 
tory. Almost all of the questions to which America 
addressed itself, say a hundred years ago, were legal ques- 
tions, were questions of method, not questions of what you 
were going to do with your Government, but questions of 
how you were going to constitute your Government — how 
you were going to balance the powers of the States and 
the Federal Government, how you were going to balance 



348 WOODROW WILSON 

the claims of property against the processes of liberty, 
how you were going to make your governments up so as 
to balance the parts against each other so that the legis- 
lature would check the executive, and the executive the 
legislature, and the courts both of them put together. 
The whole conception of government when the United 
States became a Nation was a mechanical conception of 
government, and the mechanical conception of govern- 
ment which underlay it was the Newtonian theory of the 
universe. If you pick up the Federalist, some parts of 
it read like a treatise on astronomy instead of a treatise 
on government. They speak of the centrifugal and the 
centripetal forces, and locate the President somewhere 
in a rotating system. The whole thing is a calculation of 
power and an adjustment of parts. There was a time when 
nobody but a lawyer could know enough to run the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, and a distinguished English 
publicist once remarked, speaking of the complexity of 
the American Government, that it was no proof of the 
excellence of the American Constitution that it had been 
successfully operated, because the Americans could run 
any constitution. But there have been a great many tech- 
nical difficulties in running it. 

"And then something happened. A great question 
arose in this country which, though complicated with legal 
elements, was at bottom a human question, and nothing 
but a question of humanity. That was the slavery ques- 
tion. And is it not significant that it was then, and then 
for the first time, that women became prominent in poli- 
tics in America? Not many women; those prominent in 
that day were so few that you can name them over in a 
brief catalogue, but, nevertheless, they then began to play 
a part in writing, not only, but in public speech, which 
was a very novel part for women to play in America. 
After the Civil War had settled some of what seemed to 
be the most difficult legal questions of our system, the life 
of the Nation began not only to unfold, but to accumu- 



WOODROW WILSON 349 

late. Life in the United States was a comparatively 
simple matter at the time of the Civil War. There was 
none of that underground struggle which is now so mani- 
fest to those who look only a little way beneath the sur- 
face. The pressure of low wages, the agony of obscure 
and unremunerated toil, did not exist in America in any- 
thing like the same proportions that they exist now. 

' 'And as our life has unfolded and accumulated, as 
the contacts of it have become hot, as the populations have 
assembled in the cities and the cool spaces of the country 
have been supplanted by the feverish urban areas, the 
whole nature of our political questions has been altered. 
They have ceased to be legal questions. They have more 
and more become social questions, questions with regard 
to the relations of human beings to one another — not 
merely their legal relations, but their moral and spiritual 
relations to one another. This has been most character- 
istic of American life in the last few decades, and as these 
questions have assumed greater and greater prominence, 
the movement which this association represents has gath- 
ered cumulative force. So that, if anybody asks himself, 
'What does this gathering force mean,' if he knows 
anything about the history of the country, he knows that 
it means something that has not only come to stay, but 
has come with conquering power. 

"I get a little impatient sometimes about the discus- 
sion of the channels and methods by which it is to prevail. 
It is going to prevail, and that is a very superficial and 
ignorant view of it which attributes it to mere social 
unrest. It is not merely because the women are discon- 
tented. It is because the women have seen visions of duty, 
and that is something which we not only cannot resist, but, 
if we be true Americans, we do not wish to resist. Amer- 
ica took its origin in visions of the human spirit, in aspira- 
tions for the deepest sort of liberty of the mind and of the 
heart, and as visions of that sort come up to the sight of 
those who are spiritually minded in America, America 



350 WOODROW WILSON 

comes more and more into her birthright and into the 
perfection of her development. 

1 ' So that what we have to realize in dealing with forces 
of this sort is that we are dealing with the substance of 
life itself. I have felt as I sat here tonight the wholesome 
contagion of the occasion. Almost every other time that 
I ever visited Atlantic City, I came to fight somebody. 
I hardly know how to conduct myself when I have not 
come to fight against anybody, but with somebody. I 
have come to suggest, among other things, that when the 
forces of nature are steadily working and the tide is rising 
to meet the moon, you need not be afraid that it will not 
come to its flood. We feel the tide; we rejoice in the 
strength of it ; and we shall not quarrel in the long run 
as to the method of it. Because, when you are working 
with masses of men and organized bodies of opinion, you 
have got to carry the organized body along. The whole 
art and practice of government consists, not in moving 
individuals, but in moving masses. It is all very well to 
run ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait 
for the body to follow. I have not come to ask you to be 
patient, because you have been, but I have come to con- 
gratulate you that there was a force behind you that will 
beyond any peradventure be triumphant, and for which 
you can afford a little while to wait. ' ' 

The President had not touched on the business situ- 
ation of the country in several months, but took occasion 
on a visit to Baltimore to state that he was not through 
with the reform program he had begun when he was 
elected for the first term. He spoke before a meeting of 
the Grain Dealers' Association on September 25th as 
follows : 

"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a mat- 
ter of sincere gratification to me that I can come and 
address an association of this sort, and yet I feel that 
there is a certain drawback to the present occasion. That 
drawback consists of the fact that it occurs in the midst 



WOODROW WILSON 351 

of a political campaign. Nothing so seriously interrupts 
or interferes with the sober and sincere consideration of 
public questions as a political campaign. I want to say 
to you at the outset that I believe in party action, but that 
I have a supreme contempt for partisan action; that I 
believe that it is necessary for men to concert measures 
together in organized cooperation by party, but that when- 
ever party feeling touches any one of the passions that 
work against the general interest, it is altogether to be 
condemned. Therefore, I feel that on occasions like this 
we should divest ourselves of the consciousness that we 
are in the midst of a political campaign. . . . 

"What I have come to say to you today, therefore, I 
would wish to say in an atmosphere from which all the 
vapors of passion have been cleared away, for I want to 
speak to you about the business situation of the world, so 
far as America is concerned. I am not going to take the 
liberty of discussing that business situation from the spe- 
cial point of view of your association, because I know that 
I would be bringing coals to Newcastle. I know that I am 
speaking to men who understand the relation of the grain 
business to the business of the world very much better 
than I do ; and I know that it is true that, except under 
very unusual circumstances such as have existed in the 
immediate past, the export of grain from this country 
has been a diminishing part of our foreign commerce 
rather than an increasing part ; that the increase of our 
own population — the decrease in proportion to that in- 
crease, of our production of grains — has been rendering 
the question of foreign markets less important, though 
still very important, than it was in past generations, so 
far as the dealing in grain is concerned. I also remem- 
ber, however, that we have only begun in this country the 
process by which the full production of our agricultural 
acreage is to be obtained. The agricultural acreage of 
this country ought to produce twice what it is now pro- 
ducing, and under the stimulation and instruction which 



352 WOODEOW WILSON 

have recently been characteristic of agricultural devel- 
opment I think we can confidently predict that within, 
let us say, a couple of decades, the agricultural production 
of this country will be something like double, whereas, 
there is no likelihood that the population of this country 
will be doubled within the same period. You can look 
forward, therefore, it seems to me, with some degree of 
confidence to an increasing, and perhaps a rapidly in- 
creasing, volume of the products in which you deal. 

''But, as I have said, I have not come to discuss that. 
I have come to discuss the general relation of the United 
States to the business of the world in the decades imme- 
diately ahead of us. We have swung out, my fellow citi- 
zens, into a new business era in America. I suppose that 
there is no man connected with your association who 
does not remember the time when the whole emphasis of 
American business discussion was laid upon the domestic 
market. I need not remind you how recently it has hap- 
pened that our attention has been extended to the markets 
of the world; much less recently, I need not say, in the 
matters with which you are concerned than in the other 
export interests of the country. But it happened that 
American production, not only in the agricultural field 
and in mining and in all the natural products of the earth, 
but also in manufacture, increased in recent years to such 
a volume that American business burst its jacket. It 
could not any longer be taken care of within the field of 
the domestic markets; and when that began to disclose 
itself as the situation, we also became aware that Ameri- 
can business men had not studied foreign markets, that 
they did not know the commerce of the world, and that 
they did not have the ships in which to take their propor- 
tionate part in the carrying trade of the world; that our 
merchant marine had sunk to a negligible amount, and that 
it had sunk to its lowest at the very time when the tide 
of our exports began to grow in most formidable volume. 

"One of the most interesting circumstances of our 



WOODKOW WILSON 353 

business history is this : The banking laws of the United 
States — I mean the Federal banking laws — did not put 
the national banks in a position to do foreign exchange 
under favorable conditions, and it was actually true that 
private banks, and sometimes branch banks drawn out of 
other countries, notably out of Canada, were established 
at our chief ports to do what American bankers ought 
to have done. It was as if America was not only unac- 
customed to touching all the nerves of the world's busi- 
ness, but was disinclined to touch them, and had not pre- 
pared the instrumentality by which it might take part in 
the great commerce of the round globe. Only in very 
recent years have we been even studying the problem of 
providing ourselves with the instrumentalities. 

"Not until the recent legislation of Congress known 
as the Federal Reserve Act were the federal banks of this 
country given the proper equipment through which they 
could assist American commerce, not only in our own 
country, but in any part of the world where they chose 
to set up branch institutions. British banks had been 
serving British merchants all over the world, German 
banks had been serving German merchants all over the 
world, and no national bank of the United States had 
been. serving American merchants anywhere in the world 
except in the United States. We had, as it were, delib- 
erately refrained from playing our part in the field in 
which we prided ourselves that we were most ambitious 
and most expert, the field of manufacture and of com- 
merce. All that is past, and the scene has been changed 
by the events of the last two years, almost suddenly, and 
with a completeness that almost daunts the planning 
mind. Not only when this war is over, but now, America 
has her place in the world and must take her place in the 
world of finance and commerce upon a scale that she never 
dreamed of before. 

"My dream is that she will take her place in that 
great field in a new spirit which the world has never seen 



354 WOODROW WILSON 

before ; not the spirit of those who would exclude others, 
but the spirit of those who would excel others. I want 
to see America pitted against the world, not in selfishness, 
but in brains. . . . 

"What instrumentalities have we provided ourselves 
with in order that we may be equipped with knowledge? 
There has been an instrumentality in operation for four 
or five years of which, strangely enough, American busi- 
ness men have only slowly become aware. Some four or 
five years ago the Congress established, in connection 
with the department which was then the Department of 
Commerce and Labor (now the Department of Com- 
merce) a Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and 
one of the advantages which the American Government 
has derived from that bureau is that it has been able to 
hire brains for much less than the brains were worth. It 
is in a way a national discredit to us, my fellow citizens, 
that we are paying studious men, capable of understand- 
ing anything and of conducting any business, just about 
one-third of what they could command in the field of busi- 
ness; and it is one of the admirable circumstances of 
American life that they are proud to serve the Govern- 
ment on a pittance. There are such men in the Bureau 
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. They have been 
studying the foreign commerce of this country as it was 
never studied before, and have been making reports so 
comprehensive and so thorough that they compare to 
their great advantage with the reports of any similar 
bureau of any other government in the world, and I have 
found to my amazement that some of the best of those 
reports seem never to have been read. . . . 

"And then, in addition to that, there was recently 
created the Federal Trade Commission. It is hard to 
describe the functions of that commission; all I can say 
is that it has transformed the Government of the United 
States from being an antagonist of business into being a 
friend of business. A few years ago American business 



WOODROW WILSON 355 

men — I think you will corroborate this statement — took 
up their morning paper with some degree of nervousness 
to see what the Government was doing to them. I ask 
you if you take up the morning paper now with any degree 
of nervousness? And I ask you if you have not found, 
those of you who have dealt with it all, the Federal Trade 
Commission to be put there to show you the way in which 
the Government can help you and not the way in which 
the Government can hinder you? 

"But that is not the matter that I am most interested 
in. It has always been a fiction — I don't know who in- 
vented it or why he invented it — that there was a contest 
between the law and business. There has always been a 
contest in every government between the law and bad 
business, and I do not want to see that contest softened 
in any way ; but there has never been any contest between 
men who intended the right thing and the men who admin- 
istered the law. But what I want to speak of is this : One 
of the functions of the Federal Trade Commission is^ to 
inquire with the fullest powers ever conferred upon a sim- 
ilar commission in this country into all the circumstances 
of American business for the purpose of doing for Ameri- 
can business exactly what the Department of Agriculture 
has so long and with increasing efficiency done for the 
farmer, inform the American business man of every ele- 
ment, big and little, with which it is his duty to deal. Here 
are created searching eyes of inquiry to do the very thing 
that it was imperatively necessary and immediately nec- 
essary that the country should do — look upon the field of 
business and know what was going on ! 

"And then, in the third place, you know that we have 
just now done what it was common sense to do about the 
tariff. We have not put this into words, but I do not 
hesitate to put it into words : We have admitted that on 
the one side and on the other we were talking theories 
and managing policies without a sufficient knowledge of 
the facts upon which we were acting, and, therefore, we 



356 WOODKOW WILSON 

have established what is intended to be a non-partisan 
Tariff Commission to study the conditions with which 
legislation has to deal in the matter of the relations of 
American with foreign business transactions. Another 
eye created to see the facts ! . . . The Tariff Commission 
is going to look for the facts, no matter who is hurt. "We 
are creating one after another the instrumentalities of 
knowledge, so that the business men of this country shall 
know what the field of the world's business is and deal 
with that field upon that knowledge. 

' ' Then, when the knowledge is obtained, what are we 
going to do? One of the things that interests me most 
about an association of this sort is that the intention of 
it is that the members should share a common body of 
information, and that they should concert among them- 
selves those operations of business which are beneficial 
to all of them ; that, instead of a large number of dealers 
in grain acting separately and each fighting for his own 
hand, you are willing to come together and study the prob- 
lem as if you were partners and brothers and cooperators 
in this field of business. That has been going on in every 
occupation in the United States of any consequence. . . . 
We must cooperate in the whole field of business, the Gov- 
ernment with the merchant, the merchant with his em- 
ployee, the whole body of producers with the whole body 
of consumers, to see that the right things are produced in 
the right volume and find the right purchasers at the right 
place, and that, all working together, we realize that noth- 
ing can be for the individual benefit which is not for the 
common benefit. 

"You know that there was introduced in the House 
of Representatives recently a bill, commonly called the 
Webb bill, for the purpose of stating it as the policy of 
the law of the United States that nothing in the anti-trust 
laws now existing should be interpreted to interfere with 
the proper sort of cooperation among exporters. The for- 
eign field is not like the domestic field. The foreign field 



WOODROW WILSON 357 

is full of combinations meant to be exclusive. The anti- 
trust laws of the United States are intended to prevent 
any kind of combination in the United States which shall 
be exclusive of new enterprises within the United States, 
any combination which shall set up monopoly in America ; 
but the export business is a very big business, a very com- 
plicated business, a very expensive business, and it ought 
to be possible, and it will be possible and legal, for men 
engaged in exporting to get together and manage it in 
groups, so that they can manage it at an advantage instead 
of at a disadvantage as compared with foreign rivals. 
Not for the purpose of exclusive and monopolistic com- 
bination, but for the purpose of cooperation, and there is 
a very wide difference there. I for myself despise monop- 
oly, and I have an enthusiasm for cooperation. By coop- 
eration I mean working along with anybody who is willing 
to work along with you under definite understandings and 
arrangements which will constitute a sound business pro- 
gram. There can be no jealousy of that, and if there had 
been time, I can say with confidence that this bill, which 
passed the House of Representatives, would have passed 
the Senate of the United States also. So that any ob- 
stacle that ingenious lawyers may find in the anti-trust 
laws will be removed. . . . 

"And then there must be cooperation, not only be- 
tween the Government and the business men, but between 
business men. Shippers must cooperate, and they ought 
to be studying right now how to cooperate. There are a 
great many gentlemen in other countries who can show 
them how ! They ought to look forward, particularly, to 
caring for this matter, that they have vehicles in which to 
carry their goods. We must address ourselves imme- 
diately and as rapidly as possible to the re-creation of a 
great American merchant marine. Our present situation 
is very like this : Suppose that a man who had a great 
department store did not have any delivery wagons and 
depended upon his competitors in the same market to 



358 WOODROW WILSON 

deliver his goods to his customers. You know what would 
happen. They would deliver their own goods first and 
quickest, and they would deliver yours only if yours were 
to be delivered upon the routes followed by their wagons. 
That is an exact picture of what is taking place in our 
foreign trade at this minute. Foreign vessels carry our 
goods where they, the foreign vessels, happen to be going, 
and they carry them only if they have room in addition 
to what they are carrying for other people. You can not 
conduct trade that way. That is conducting trade on suf- 
ferance. That is conducting trade on an 'if you please.' 
That is conducting trade on the basis of service the point 
of view of which is not your advantage. Therefore, we 
can not lose any time in getting delivery wagons. 

"There has been a good deal of discussion about this 
recently, and it has been said, ' The Government must not 
take any direct part in this. You must let private capital 
do it,' and the reply was, 'All right, go ahead.' 'Oh, but 
we will not go ahead unless you help us.' We said, 'Very 
well, then, we will go ahead, but we will not need your 
help, because we do not want to compete where you are 
already doing the carrying business, but where you are 
not doing the carrying business it has to be done for some 
time at a loss. We will undertake to do it at a loss until 
that route is established, and we will give place to private 
capital whenever private capital is ready to take the 
place.' That sounds like a very reasonable proposition. 
'We will carry your goods one way when we have to come 
back empty the other way and lose money on the voyage, 
and when there are cargoes both ways and it is profitable 
to carry them, we shall not insist upon carrying them any 
longer. ' 

"And it is absolutely necessary now to make good 
our new connections. Our new connections are with the 
great and rich republics to the south of us. For the first 
time in my recollection they are beginning to trust and 
believe in us and want us, and one of my chief concerns 



WOODROW WILSON 359 

has been to see that nothing was done that did not show 
friendship and good faith on our part. You know that it 
used to be the case that if you wanted to travel comforta- 
bly in your own person from New York to a South Ameri- 
can port, you had to go by way of England or else stow 
yourself away in some uncomfortable fashion in a ship 
that took almost as long to go straight, and within whose 
bowels you got in such a temper before you got there that 
you did not care whether she got there or not. The great 
interesting geographical fact to me is that by the opening 
of the Panama Canal there is a straight line south from 
New York through the canal to the western coast of South 
America, which hitherto has been one of the most remote 
coasts in the world so far as we were concerned. The west 
coast of South America is now nearer to us than the east- 
ern coast of South America ever was, though we have the 
open Atlantic upon which to approach the east coast. 
Here is the loom all ready upon which to spread the 
threads which can be worked into a fabric of friendship 
and wealth such as we have never known before ! . . . 

"We have got to have the knowledge, we have got to 
have the cooperation, and then back of all that has got to 
lie what America has in abundance and only has to re- 
lease, that is to say, the self-reliant enterprise. 

' ' There is only one thing I have ever been ashamed 
of about in America, and that was the timidity and fear- 
fulness of Americans in the presence of foreign com- 
petitors. I have dwelt among Americans all my life and 
am an intense absorbent of the atmosphere of America, 
and I know by personal experience that there are as 
effective brains in America as anywhere in the world. An 
American afraid to pit American business men against 
any competitors anywhere ! Enterprise, the shrewdness 
which Americans have shown, the knowledge of business 
which they have shown, all these things are going to make 
for that peaceful and honorable conquest of foreign mar- 
kets which is our reasonable ambition. . . ." 



360 WOODROW WILSON 

President Wilson, throughout the campaign, held 
aloof from personal attacks on any of his opponents. He 
urged the interests of America and pointed to the legisla- 
tion which had marked his administration. On November 
2, 1916, he addressed a meeting of business men in the 
Waldorf hotel in New York. He said : 

"We are living in a very serious period of the 
world's history, therefore we must search every question 
facing us to the heart. Too many things in investigating 
business, for instance, have been left out. ' ' 

The President criticised business "for resisting 
changes," declared that men in Wall Street had no vision, 
and that men who treat their employees as partners in 
business were most prosperous. 

" ' Are the people living under conditions which bring 
about justice 1 ' is a question of prime importance, ' ' he con- 
tinued. "The roots of business lie deep in the daily lives 
of the ordinary people. The thing which has disturbed 
the thoughts of a great many people is that some men 
believe they are being exploited. 

1 ' Men who go under the surface see things that will 
have to be dealt with in vigorous fashion — they see a vol- 
cano. But I believe this sort of thing will be relieved and 
that the things which are wrong will be made right. 

"It is high time that we define what we mean when 
we speak of progressive policies." 

The President spoke of the "intolerable burdens" 
some women and children are carrying. "Progressive- 
ness," he said, "is a constant adjustment of the condi- 
tions of society to the welfare of mankind. I come to 
suggest to business men that it is better that this adjust- 
ment go forward rather than that it be dammed up until 
the dam is broken and society is overturned. 

"The particular conditions upon which successful 
vital business depends are the conditions which touch the 
daily life of the common mass of the people of the country. 

"When you think of the ultimate foundation of busi- 



.WOODROW WILSON 361 

ness, you must know that you find them in the conditions 
of the national life, and when I think of searching the 
business question to the heart it seems to me that there 
are some very large reckonings which have too often been 
left out of the account. 

' ' The amount of genius that exerts itself in resisting 
changes is a great indictment. Brains have been burned 
out acting as brakes. The real trouble is that American 
business has been under the direction of too small a body 
of men. 

"If we have a contented people we can make con- 
quests of the world by making other people follow our 
example. In making this fight I am fighting a battle for 
the very men who opposed me, for if it is not won the very 
businesses in which they are interested will crumble. 

"You have got to have new blood." He then went 
on to say there were a small number of men in Wall Street 
who felt ' ' nothing is safe unless they are consulted. ' ' 

"Aristocracy," he said, "is just as bad for business 
as it is for a government. That is why I was so interested 
in the federal reserve act. It has broken up the business 
of limiting control. 

' ' The only sources of strength for business as well as 
government are to be found in the people, ' ' he continued, 
' ' holding that they must be satisfied and confident of jus- 
tice if they are to do their work happily and well. 

"The roots of our daily life are these people who 
travel the streets and those who have the impression that 
they are being exploited, that others may prosper while 
they are getting the crumbs. 

"Opinion is just as much a fact as any law of nature. 
This subtle thing of opinion you will find lying deep hid- 
den in unspoken thoughts of people. Once America had 
no such underworld. ' ' 

He said dissatisfaction must be dealt with generally, 
"not because of danger," but "because I think this is the 
country of all the world where things that are wrong are 



362 WOODROW WILSON 

being made right." He said nearly every progressive 
id£a which has borne fruit ''has had something to do with 
the welfare of man. 

"The law of adjustment is the law of life," he con- 
tinued, " in a world that never stands still. The structure 
and satisfaction of the nation is based upon the human 
heart. Business can not afford to let anything alone. 
When I hear a man say * let business alone, ' I know he does 
not know business. 

1 l I have been told again and again, ' ' said the Presi- 
dent, discussing Wall Street, "that it was a mistake for 
me not to call into counsel, in public affairs, men who con- 
stitute what we have agreed to call 'Wall Street.' And I 
have again said this: 

"If they would come in a spirit of cooperation they 
would be more than welcome. But they always come in a 
spirit of resistance, advising alterations in the plans; 
alterations which would defeat the balance. 

"This is not generalization. They have a subtle 
genius for proposing seemingly immaterial changes 
which would eventually lead to the defect of the main 
objects of the legislation proposed. Do you wonder that I 
did not call them into consultation? And yet I tell you 
again that they will be welcomed the moment they come 
to cooperate and they will not be welcome until then." 

The election took place on November 7th, five days 
after the address was delivered. 

For many days the result remained in doubt. The 
vote was so close that a wrangle was caused by the Re- 
publicans claiming an official count of the ballots. It was 
not until November 12th that the final count was an- 
nounced. It showed 9,129,606 votes cast for President 
Wilson and 8,538,221 for Hughes; a plurality of 591,385 
for the President. The Republicans were forced to con- 
cede their defeat, which they did most grudgingly. 



CHAPTER XXI 
THE FOUETH MESSAGE. 

President Wilson accepted his election with satisfac- 
tion. He was well aware that his methods in dealing with 
international questions had caused differences of opinion, 
but so sure was he that his course was right, that the vote 
of the people seemed to him to be one of confidence, and 
he held his way steadily on the same course. 

More legislation was needed to bring the United 
States into the economic condition that his knowledge of 
government dictated. He appeared before a joint session 
of Congress on December 5, 1916, and delivered his fourth 
annual message, as follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress: In fulfilling at this 
time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution of com- 
municating to you from time to time information of the 
state of the Union and recommending to your considera- 
tion such legislative measures as may be judged neces- 
sary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, which I 
hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports 
of the several heads of the executive departments the 
elaboration of the detailed needs of the public service and 
confine myself to those matters of more general public 
policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal 
at the present session of the Congress. 

"I realize the limitations of time under which you 
will necessarily act at this session and shall make my sug- 
gestions as few as possible; but there were some things 
left undone at the last session which there will now be time 
to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest 
of the public to do at once. 

1 1 In the first place, it seems to me imperatively neces- 

363 



364 WOODROW WILSON 

sary that the earliest possible consideration and action 
should be accorded the remaining measures of the pro- 
gramme of settlement and regulation which I had occasion 
to recommend to you at the close of your last session in 
view of the public dangers disclosed by the unaccommo- 
dated difficulties which then existed, and which still un- 
happily continue to exist, between the railroads of the 
country and their locomotive engineers, conductors, and 
trainmen. 

' 'I then recommended : 

" First, immediate provision for the enlargement and 
administrative reorganization of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission along the lines embodied in the bill 
recently passed by the House of Representatives and now 
awaiting action by the Senate ; in order that the Commis- 
sion may be enabled to deal with the many great and 
various duties now devolving upon it with a promptness 
and thoroughness which are, with its present constitution 
and means of action, practically impossible. 

"Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as 
the legal basis alike of work and of wages in the employ- 
ment of all railway employes who are actually engaged 
in the work of operating trains in interstate transporta- 
tion. 

"Third, the authorization of the appointment by the 
President of a small body of men to observe the actual 
results in experience of the adoption of the eight-hour 
day in railway transportation alike for the men and for 
the railroads. 

"Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the 
consideration by the Interstate Commerce Commission of 
an increase of freight rates to meet such additional ex- 
penditures by the railroads as may have been rendered 
necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which 
have not been offset by administrative readjustments and 
economies, should the facts disclosed justify the increase. 

"Fifth, an amendment of the existing federal statute 



WOODROW WILSON 365 

which provides for the mediation, conciliation, and arbi- 
tration of such controversies as the present by adding to 
it a provision that, in case the methods of accommodation 
now provided for should fail, a full public investigation 
of the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and 
completed before a strike or lockout may lawfully be at- 
tempted. 

"And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the 
Executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to 
take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the 
railways of the country as may be required for military 
use and to operate them for military purposes, with 
authority to draft into the military service of the United 
States such train crews and administrative officials as the 
circumstances require for their safe and efficient use. 

"The second and third of these recommendations the 
Congress immediately acted on : it established the eight- 
hour day as the legal basis of work and wages in train 
service and it authorized the appointment of a commis- 
sion to observe and report upon the practical results, 
deeming these the measures most immediately needed; 
but it postponed action upon the other suggestions until 
an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate 
consideration of them. The fourth recommendation I do 
not deem it necessary to renew. The power of the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates 
on the ground referred to is indisputably clear and a 
recommendation by the Congress with regard to such a 
matter might seem to draw in question the scope of the 
Commission's authority or its inclination to do justice 
when there is no reason to doubt either. 

"The other suggestions, — the increase in the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission's membership and in its 
facilities for performing its manifold duties, the provision 
for full public investigation and assessment of industrial 
disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to 
control and operate the railways when necessary in time 



366 YfOODROW WILSON 

of war or other like public necessity,— I now very earnest- 
ly renew. 

"The necessity for such legislation is manifest and 
pressing. Those who have entrusted us with the responsi- 
bility and duty of serving and safeguarding them in such 
matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to 
act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary post- 
ponement of action upon them. 

"Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission 
now find it practically impossible, with its present mem- 
bership and organization, to perform its great functions 
promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it may 
presently be found advisable to add to its duties still 
others equally heavy and exacting. It must first be per- 
fected as an administrative instrument. 

1 ' The country can not and should not consent to re- 
main any longer exposed to profound industrial disturb- 
ances for lack of additional means of arbitration and con- 
ciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly sup- 
ply. And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to 
the power of the Executive to make immediate and unin- 
terrupted use of the railroads for the concentration of the 
military forces of the nation wherever they are needed 
and whenever they are needed. 

"This is a programme of regulation, prevention, and 
administrative efficiency which argues its own case in the 
mere statement of it. With regard to one of its items, the 
increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, the House of Representatives has already acted ; 
its action needs only the concurrence of the Senate. 

"I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the 
Congress would hesitate to act upon the suggestion should 
I make it, that any man in any occupation should be 
obliged by law to continue in an employment which he 
desired to leave. To pass a law which forbade or pre- 
vented the individual workman to leave his work before 
receiving the approval of society in doing so would be 






WOODROW WILSON 367 

to adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence which I 
take it for granted we are not prepared to introduce. But 
the proposal that the operation of the railways of the 
country shall not be stopped or interrupted by the con- 
certed action of organized bodies of men until a public 
investigation shall have been instituted which shall make 
the whole question at issue plain, for the judgment of the 
opinion of the nation is not to propose any such principle. 
It is based upon the very diff erent principle that the con- 
certed action of powerful bodies of men shall not be per- 
mitted to stop the industrial processes of the nation, at 
any rate before the nation shall have had an opportunity 
to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between 
employee and employer, time to form its opinion upon an 
impartial statement of the merits, and opportunity to con- 
sider all practicable means of conciliation or arbitration. 
I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable 
safeguarding by society of the necessary processes of its 
very life. There is nothing arbitrary or unjust in it 
unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It can and 
should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the 
interests and liberties of all concerned as well as for the 
permanent interests of society itself. 

" Three matters of capital importance await the ac- 
tion of the Senate which have already been acted upon by 
the House of Representatives : the bill which seeks to 
extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged 
in promoting the foreign commerce of the country than is 
now thought by some to be legal under the terms of the 
laws against monopoly; the bill amending the present 
organic law of Porto Rico ; and the bill proposing a more 
thorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of 
money in elections, commonly called the Corrupt Prac- 
tices Act. I need not labor my advice that these measures 
be enacted into law. Their urgency lies in the manifest 
circumstances which render their adoption at this time 
not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would 



368 WOODROW WILSON 

seriously jeopard the interests of the country and of 
the government. 

"Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the ex- 
penditure of money in elections may seem to be less neces- 
sary than the immediate enactment of the other measures 
to which I refer; because at least two years will elapse 
before another election in which federal offices are to be 
filled ; but it would greatly relieve the public mind if this 
important matter were dealt with while the circumstances 
and the dangers to the public morals of the present method 
of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear 
under recent observation, and the methods of expenditure 
can be frankly studied in the light of present experience ; 
and a delay would have the further very serious disad- 
vantage of postponing action until another election was 
at hand and some special object connected with it might 
be thought to be in the mind of those who urged it. Ac- 
tion can be taken now with facts for guidance and without 
suspicion of partisan purpose. 

"I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving 
a freer hand in the matter of combined and concerted 
effort to those who shall undertake the essential enter- 
prise of building up our export trade. That enterprise 
will presently, will immediately assume, has indeed 
already assumed, a magnitude unprecedented in our ex- 
perience. "We have not the necessary instrumentalities 
for its prosecution ; it is deemed to be doubtful whether 
they could be created upon an adequate scale under our 
present laws. We should clear away all legal obstacles 
and create a basis of undoubted law for it which will give 
freedom without permitting unregulated license. The 
thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here 
and may escape us if we hesitate or delay. 

"The argument for the proposed amendments of the 
organic law of Porto Rico is brief and conclusive. The 
present laws governing the Island and regulating the 
rights and privileges of its people are not just. We have 




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WOODROW WILSON 373 

created expectations of extended privilege which we have 
not satisfied. There is uneasiness among the people of the 
Island and even a suspicious doubt with regard to our 
intentions concerning them which the adoption of the 
pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt 
what we wish to do in any essential particular. We ought 
to do it at once. 

" At the last session of the Congress a bill was passed 
by the Senate which provides for the promotion of voca- 
tional and industrial education which is of vital im- 
portance to the whole country because it concerns a mat- 
ter, too long neglected, upon which the thorough industrial 
preparation of the country for the critical years of eco- 
nomic development immediately ahead of us in very large 
measure depends. May I not urge its early and favora- 
ble consideration by the House of Representatives and 
its early enactment into law? It contains plans which 
affect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am 
sure that there is no legislation now pending before the 
Congress whose passage the country awaits with more 
thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a great 
and admirable thing set in the way of being done. 

" There are other matters already advanced to the 
stage of conference between the two Houses of which it 
is not necessary that I should speak. Some practicable 
basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found 
and action taken upon them. 

"Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last 
occasion I shall have to address the Sixty-fourth Con- 
gress, I hope that you will permit me to say with what 
genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have cooperated with 
you in the many measures of constructive policy with 
which you have enriched the legislative annals of the 
country. It has been a privilege to labor in such com- 
pany. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the 
completion of a record of rare serviceableness and dis- 
tinction. ' ' 



374 WOODROW WILSON 

The European war had now been raging for two and 
a half years with little prospect of either side gaining a 
decisive victory. The German army had maintained its 
lines in France and Belgium, and a large portion of 
Eoumania was in its possession, in addition to Poland, 
Serbia, Montenegro and part of Russia. 



I 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE PRESIDENT'S PEACE PROPOSAL. 

The time was most opportune for the Germans to 
make an offer of peace. Every aim that the Germans had 
was attained. By release of part of the conquered terri- 
tory the German general staff contemplated obtaining the 
return of the lost colonies and important concessions at 
the expense of the French and British. 

With this idea in mind the German government, on 
December 12, 1916, addressed a note to the allied powers 
offering to enter at once on peace negotiations. 

The German offer was repudiated with indignation by 
the Allies. They could see the disastrous peace underly- 
ing the German offer. 

President Wilson, however, agreed that the time 
was most opportune for a general reconciliation and ac- 
cordingly addressed a note to the warring powers on De- 
cember 18th, as follows : 

"The President directs me to send you the following 
communication to be presented immediately to the Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs of the Government to which you 
are accredited: 

"The President of the United States has instructed 
me to suggest to the [here is inserted a designation of the 
Government addressed] a course of action with regard to 
the present war, which he hopes that the Government will 
take under consideration as suggested in the most friendly 
spirit, and as coming not only from a friend but also as 
coming from the representative of a neutral nation whose 
interests have been most seriously affected by the war and 
whose concern for its early conclusion arises out of a 
manifest necessity to determine how best to safeguard 
those interests if the war is to continue. 

375 



376 WOODROW WILSON 

[The third paragraph of the note as sent to the four 
Central Powers— Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, 
and Bulgaria — is as follows:] 

1 1 The suggestion which I am instructed to make the 
President has long had it in mind to offer. He is some- 
what embarrassed to offer it at this particular time, be- 
cause it may now seem to have been prompted by a desire 
to play a part in connection with the recent overtures of 
the Central Powers. It has, in fact, been in no way sug- 
gested by them in its origin, and the President would have 
delayed offering it until those overtures had been inde- 
pendently answered but for the fact that it also concerns 
the question of peace and may best be considered in con- 
nection with other proposals which have the same end in 
view. The President can only beg that his suggestion be 
considered entirely on its own merits and as if it had been 
made in other circumstances. 

[The third paragraph of the note as sent to the ten 
Entente Allies — Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, 
Russia, Belgium, Montenegro, Portugal, Roumania, and 
Serbia — is as follows :] 

' ' The suggestion which I am instructed to make the 
President has long had it in mind to offer. He is some- 
what embarrassed to offer it at this particular time, be- 
cause it may now seem to have been prompted by the 
recent overtures of the Central Powers. It is, in fact, in 
no way associated with them in its origin, and the Presi- 
dent would have delayed offering it until those overtures 
had been answered but for the fact that it also concerns 
the question of peace and may best be considered in con- 
nection with other proposals which have the same end in 
view. The President can only beg that his suggestion be 
considered entirely on its own merits and as if it had been 
made in other circumstances. 

[Thenceforward the note proceeds identically to all 
the powers, as follows :] 

"The President suggests that an early occasion be 



WOODROW WILSON 377 

sought to call out from all the nations now at war such an 
avowal of their respective views as to the terms upon 
which the war might be concluded and the arrangements 
which would be deemed satisfactory as a guaranty against 
its renewal or the kindling of any similar conflict in the 
future as would make it possible frankly to compare them. 
He is indifferent as to the means taken to accomplish this. 
He would be happy himself to serve, or even to take the 
initiative in its accomplishment, in any way that might 
prove acceptable, but he has no desire to determine the 
method or the instrumentality. One way will be as ac- 
ceptable to him as another, if only the great object he has 
in mind be attained. 

1 ' He takes the liberty of calling attention to the fact 
that the objects, which the statesmen of the belligerents 
on both sides have in mind in this war, are virtually the 
same, as stated in general terms to their own people and 
to the world. Each side desires to make the rights and 
privileges of weak peoples and small states as secure 
against aggression or denial in the future as the rights 
and privileges of the great and powerful states now at 
war. Each wishes itself to be made secure in the future, 
along with all other nations and peoples, against the re- 
currence of wars like this and against aggression or sel- 
fish interference of any kind. Each would be jealous of 
the formation of any more rival leagues to preserve an 
uncertain balance of power amid multiplying suspicions ; 
but each is ready to consider the formation of a league of 
nations to insure peace and justice throughout the world. 
Before that final step can be taken, however, each deems 
it necessary first to settle the issues of the present war 
upon terms which will certainly safeguard the inde- 
pendence, the territorial integrity, and the political and 
commercial freedom of the nations involved. 

"In the measures to be taken to secure the future 
peace of the world the people and Government of the 
United States are as vitally and as directly interested as 



378 WOODROW "WILSON 

the Governments now at war. Their interest, moreover, 
in the means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and 
weaker peoples of the world of the peril of wrong and 
violence is as quick and ardent as that of any other people 
or government. They stand ready, and even eager, to 
cooperate in the accomplishment of these ends, when the 
war is over, with every influence and resource at their 
command. But the war must first be concluded. The 
terms upon which it is to be concluded they are not at lib- 
erty to suggest, but the President does feel that it is his 
right and his duty to point out their intimate interest in 
its conclusion, lest it should presently be too late to ac- 
complish the greater things which lie beyond its conclu- 
sion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now exceedingly 
hard to endure, be rendered altogether intolerable, and 
lest, more than all, an injury be done civilization itself 
which can never be atoned for or repaired. 

"The President therefore feels altogether justified 
in suggesting an immediate opportunity for a comparison 
of views as to the terms which must precede those ultimate 
arrangements for the peace of the world, which all desire 
and in which the neutral nations as well as those at war 
are ready to play their full responsible part. If the con- 
test must continue to proceed toward undefined ends by 
slow attrition until the one group of belligerents or the 
other is exhausted ; if million after million of human lives 
must continue to be offered up until on the one side or the 
other there are no more to offer ; if resentments must be 
kindled that can never cool and despairs engendered from 
which there can be no recovery, hopes of peace and of the 
willing concert of free peoples will be rendered vain and 
idle. 

"The life of the entire world has been profoundly 
affected. Every part of the great family of mankind has 
felt the burden and terror of this unprecedented contest 
of arms. No nation in the civilized world can be said in 
truth to stand outside its influence or to be safe against 



WOODROW WILSON 379 

its disturbing effects. And yet the concrete objects for 
which it is being waged have never been definitely stated. 
1 ' The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has 
been said, stated those objects in general terms. But, 
stated in general terms, they seem the same on both sides. 
Never yet have the authoritative spokesmen of either side 
avowed the precise objects which would, if attained, sat- 
isfy them and their people that the war had been fought 
out. The world has been left to conjecture what definite 
results, what actual exchange of guaranties, what political 
or territorial changes or readjustments, what stage of 
military success, even, would bring the war to an end. 

"It may be that peace is nearer than we know; that 
the terms which the belligerents on the one side and on 
the other would deem it necessary to insist upon are not 
so irreconcilable as some have feared ; that an interchange 
of views would clear the way at least for conference and 
make the permanent concord of the nations a hope of the 
immediate future, a concert of nations immediately prac- 
ticable. 

1 ' The President is not proposing peace ; he is not even 
offering mediation. He is merely proposing that sound- 
ings be taken in order that we may learn, the neutral na- 
tions with the belligerent, how near the haven of peace 
may be for which all mankind longs with an intense and 
increasing longing. He believes that the spirit in which 
he speaks and the objects which he seeks will be under- 
stood by all concerned, and he confidently hopes for a 
response which will bring a new light into the affairs of 
the world. ' ' 

This note brought a new offer of negotiations from 
Germany which agreed identically with the note of De- 
cember 12th.' The Allies replied on January 10th and 
declared that the time was not yet ripe for peace, as they 
could agree on no peace which would not provide for the 
complete restoration of Belgium, Serbia and Montenegro 
and the payment of a sufficient indemnity. President Wil- 



380 WOODROW WILSON 

son then appeared in the United States Senate, related 
the correspondence with the European powers and laid 
down his idea of a peace. He said : 

' ' Gentlemen of the Senate : On the 18th of December 
last I addressed an identic note to the governments of the 
nations now at war requesting them to state, more defi- 
nitely than they had yet been stated by either group of 
belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it pos- 
sible to make peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of 
the rights of all neutral nations like our own, many of 
whose most vital interests the war puts in constant 
jeopardy. The Central Powers united in a reply which 
stated merely that they were ready to meet their antag- 
onists in conference to discuss terms of peace. The 
Entente Powers have replied much more definitely and 
have stated, in general terms, indeed, but with sufficient 
definiteness to imply details, the arrangements, guaran- 
tees, and acts of reparation which they deem to be the 
indispensable conditions of a satisfactory settlement. We 
are that much nearer a definite discussion of the peace 
which shall end the present war. We are that much nearer 
the discussion of the international concert which must 
thereafter hold the world at peace. In every discussion 
of the peace that must end this war it is taken for granted 
that that peace must be followed by some definite concert 
of power which will make it virtually impossible that any 
such catastrophe should ever overwhelm us again. Every 
lover of mankind, every sane and thoughtful man must 
take that for granted. 

"I have sought this opportunity to address you be- 
cause I thought that I owed it to you, as the council asso- 
ciated with me in the final determination of our interna- 
tional obligations, to disclose to you without reserve the 
thought and, purpose that have been taking form in my 
mind in regard to the duty of our Government in the days 
to come when it will be necessary to lay afresh and upon 
a new plan the foundations of peace among the nations. 



WOODROW WILSON 381 

"It is inconceivable that the people of the United 
States should play no part in that great enterprise. To 
take part in such a service will be the opportunity for 
which they have sought to prepare themselves by the very 
principles and purposes of their polity and the approved 
practices of their Government ever since the days when 
they set up a new nation in the high and honorable hope 
that it might in all that it was and did show mankind the 
way to liberty. They can not in honor withhold the ser- 
vice to which they are now about to be challenged. They 
do not wish to withhold it. But they owe it to themselves 
and to the other nations of the world to state the condi- 
tions under which they will feel free to render it. 

"That service is nothing less than this, to add their 
authority and their power to the authority and force of 
other nations to guarantee peace and justice throughout 
the world. Such a settlement can not now be long post- 
poned. It is right that before it comes this Government 
should frankly formulate the conditions upon which it 
would feel justified in asking our people to approve its 
formal and solemn adherence to a League for Peace. I 
am here to attempt to state those conditions. 

' ' The present war must first be ended ; but we owe it 
to candor and to a just regard for the opinion of mankind 
to say that, so far as our participation in guarantees of 
future peace is concerned, it makes a great deal of differ- 
ence in what way and upon what terms it is ended. The 
treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must 
embody terms which will create a peace that is worth 
guaranteeing and preserving, a peace that will win the 
approval of mankind, not merely a peace that will serve 
the several interests and immediate aims of the nations 
engaged. We shall have no voice in determining what 
those terms shall be, but we shall, I feel sure, have a voice 
in determining whether they shall be made lasting or not 
by the guarantees of a universal covenant, and our judg- 
ment upon what is fundamental and essential as a condi- 



382 WOODROW WILSON 

tion precedent to permanency should be spoken now, not 
afterwards when it may be too late. 

"No covenant of cooperative peace that does not in- 
clude the peoples of the New World can suffice to keep the 
future safe against war ; and yet there is only one sort of 
peace that the peoples of America could join in guaran- 
teeing. The elements of that peace must be elements that 
engage the confidence and satisfy the principles of the 
American governments, elements consistent with their 
political faith and with the practical convictions which the 
peoples of America have once for all embraced and under- 
taken to defend. 

" I do not mean to say that any American government 
would throw any obstacle in the way of any terms of peace 
the governments now at war might agree upon, or seek to 
upset them when made, whatever they might be. I only 
take it for granted that mere terms of peace between the 
belligerents will not satisfy even the belligerents them- 
selves. Mere agreements may not make peace secure. It 
will be absolutely necessary that a force be created as a 
guarantor of the permanency of the settlement so much 
greater than the force of any nation now engaged or any 
alliance hitherto formed or projected that no nation, no 
probable combination of nations could face or withstand 
it. If the peace presently to be made is to endure, it must 
be a peace made secure by the organized major force of 
mankind. 

' ' The terms of the immediate peace agreed upon will 
determine whether it is a peace for which such a guarantee 
can be secured. The question upon which the whole future 
peace and policy of the world depends is this : Is the pres- 
ent war a struggle for a just and secure peace, or only 
for a new balance of power ? If it be only a struggle for 
a new balance of power, who will guarantee, who can guar- 
antee, the stable equilibrium of the new arrangement? 
Only a tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe. There 
must be, not a balance of power, but a community of 



WOODROW WILSON 383 

power ; not organized rivalries, but an organized common 
peace. 

"Fortunately we have received very explicit assur- 
ances on this point. The statesmen of both of the groups 
of nations now arrayed against one another have said, in 
terms that could not be misinterpreted, that it was no part 
of the purpose they had in mind to crush their antago- 
nists. But the implications of these assurances may not be 
equally clear to all — may not be the same on both sides of 
the water. I think it will be serviceable if I attempt to set 
forth what we understand them to be. 

' ' They imply, first of all, that it must be a peace with- 
out victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I 
may be permitted to put my own interpretation upon it 
and that it may be understood that no other interpretation 
was in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities 
and to face them without soft concealments. Victory 
would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms 
imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in 
humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and 
would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon 
which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but 
only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can 
last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality 
and a common participation in a common benefit. The 
right state of mind, the right feeling between nations, is 
as necessary for a lasting peace as is the just settlement 
of vexed questions of territory or of racial and national 
allegiance. 

1 ' The equality of nations upon which peace must be 
founded if it is to last must be an equality of rights ; the 
guarantees exchanged must neither recognize nor imply 
a difference between big nations and small, between those 
that are powerful and those that are weak. Right must 
be based upon the common strength, not upon the indi- 
vidual strength, of the nations upon whose concert peace 
will depend. Equality of territory or of resources there 



384 WOODROW WILSON 

of course can not be ; nor any other sort of equality not 
gained in the ordinary peaceful and legitimate develop- 
ment of the peoples themselves. But no one asks or ex- 
pects anything more than an equality of rights. Mankind 
is looking now for freedom of life, not for equipoises of 
power. 

"And there is a deeper thing involved than even 
equality of right among organized nations. No peace can 
last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept 
the principle that governments derive all their just pow- 
ers from the consent of the governed, and that no right 
anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty 
to sovereignty as if they were property. I take it for 
granted, for instance, if I may venture upon a single ex- 
ample, that statesmen everywhere are agreed that there 
should be a united, independent and autonomous Poland, 
and that henceforth inviolable security of life, of worship 
and of industrial and social development should be guar- 
anteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the 
power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose 
hostile to their own. 

"I speak of this, not because of any desire to exalt an 
abstract political principle which has always been held 
very dear by those who have sought to build up liberty in 
America, but for the same reason that I have spoken of 
the other conditions of peace which seem to me clearly 
indispensable — because I wish frankly to uncover reali- 
ties. Any peace which does not recognize and accept this 
principle will inevitably be upset. It will not rest upon 
the affections or the convictions of mankind. The ferment 
of spirit of whole populations will fight subtly and con- 
stantly against it, and all the world will sympathize. The 
world can be at peace only if its life is stable, and there 
can be no stability where the will is in rebellion, where 
there is not tranquillity of spirit and a sense of justice, of 
freedom, and of right. 

"So far as practicable, moreover, every great people 



WOODEOW WILSON 385 

now struggling towards a full development of its re- 
sources and of its powers should be assured a direct out- 
let to the great highways of the sea. Where this can not 
be done by the cession of territory, it can no doubt be done 
by the neutralization of direct rights of way under the 
general guarantee which will assure the peace itself. With 
a right of comity of arrangement no nation need be shut 
away from free access to the open paths of the world's 
commerce. 

"And the paths of the sea must alike in law and in 
fact be free. The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non 
of peace, equality, and cooperation. No doubt a some- 
what radical reconsideration of many of the rules of inter- 
national practice hitherto thought to be established may 
be necessary in order to make the seas indeed free and 
common in practically all circumstances for the use of 
mankind, but the motive for such changes is convincing 
and compelling. There can be no trust or intimacy between 
the peoples of the world without them. The free, con- 
stant, unthreatened intercourse of nations is an essential 
part of the process of peace and of development. It need 
not be difficult either to define or to secure the freedom 
of the seas if the governments of the world sincerely 
desire to come to an agreement concerning it. 

"It is a problem closely connected with the limitation 
of naval armaments and the cooperation of the navies of 
the world in keeping the seas at once free and safe. And 
the question of limiting naval armaments opens the wider 
and perhaps more difficult question of the limitation of 
armies and of all programmes of military preparation. 
Difficult and delicate as these questions are, they must 
be faced with the utmost candor and decided in a spirit of 
real accommodation if peace is to Come with healing in its 
wings, and come to stay. Peace can not be had without 
concession and sacrifice. There can be no sense of safety 
and equality among the nations if great preponderating 
armaments are henceforth to continue here and there to 



386 WOODROW WILSON 

be built up and maintained. The statesmen of the world 
must plan for peace and nations must adjust and accom- 
modate their policy to it as they have planned for war and 
made ready for pitiless contest and rivalry. The question 
of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most im- 
mediately and intensely practical question connected with 
the future fortunes of nations and of mankind. 

"I have spoken upon these great matters without re- 
serve and with the utmost explicitness because it has 
seemed to me to be necessary if the world's yearning 
desire for peace was anywhere to find free voice and utter- 
ance. Perhaps I am the only person in high authority 
amongst all the peoples of the world who is at liberty to 
speak and hold nothing back. I am speaking as an indi- 
vidual, and yet I am speaking also, of course, as the re- 
sponsible head of a great government, and I feel confident 
that I have said what the people of the United States 
would wish me to say. May I not add that I hope and 
believe that I am in effect speaking for liberals and 
friends of humanity in every nation and of every pro- 
gramme of liberty? I would fain believe that I am speak- 
ing for the silent mass of mankind everywhere who have 
as yet had no place or opportunity to speak their real 
hearts out concerning the death and ruin they see to have 
come already upon the persons and the homes they hold 
most dear. 

' ' And in holding out the expectation that the people 
and Government of the United States will join the other 
civilized nations of the world in guaranteeing the perma- 
nence of peace upon such terms as I have named I speak 
with the greater boldness and confidence because it is 
clear to every man who can think that there is in this 
promise no breach in either our traditions or our policy 
as a nation, but a fulfilment, rather, of all that we have 
professed or striven for. 

"I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should 
with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe 



WOODROW WILSON 387 

as the doctrine of the world : that no nation should seek to 
extend its polity over any other nation or people, but that 
every people should be left free to determine its own 
polity, its own way of development, unhindered, un- 
threatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and 
powerful. 

"I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid en- 
tangling alliances which would draw them into competi- 
tions of power ; catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish 
rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with influences in- 
truded from without. There is no entangling alliance in 
a concert of power. When all unite to act in the same 
sense and with the same purpose all act in the common 
interest and are free to live their own lives under a com- 
mon protection. 

"I am proposing government by the consent of the 
governed ; that freedom of the seas which in international 
conference after conference representatives of the United 
States have urged with the eloquence of those who are the 
convinced disciples of liberty; and that moderation of 
armaments which makes of armies and navies a power 
for order merely, not an instrument of aggression or of 
selfish violence. 

1 'These are American principles, American policies. 
We could stand for no others. And they are also the prin- 
ciples and policies of forward looking men and women 
everywhere, of every modern nation, of every enlightened 
community. They are the principles of mankind and must 
prevail. ' ' 

President Wilson believed at that time that peace was 
coming within the next few months, but he had not ap- 
preciated the menace that lay in the military system Ger- 
many had built up after forty years of effort. He believed 
then as in later years, when America emerged from the 
war crowned with victory, that the future peace of the 
earth would be based on a League of Nations which would 
eliminate hidden diplomacy and secret treaties. He could 



388 WOODROW WILSON 

see no reason why international affairs should be held 
from the public, for local affairs were always placed be- 
fore them for criticism through their representatives in 
the legislatures. 

Six days later a measure restricting emigration was 
sent to the President for signature. The legislation was 
the outcome of an agitation that was countrywide against 
indiscriminate admission to the United States of impov- 
erished foreigners after the war. The fear that Ameri- 
can labor markets would be undermined by the influx was 
an old one, and Congress was overwhelmingly in favor of 
the measure. 

The President addressed the House of Representa- 
tives on January 28th, as follows : 

"To the House of Representatives: 

"I very much regret to return this bill (H. R. 10394, 
'An act to regulate the immigration of aliens to, and the 
residence of aliens in, the United States') without my sig- 
nature. In most of the provisions of the bill I should be 
very glad to concur, but I can not rid myself of the con- 
viction that the literacy test constitutes a radical change 
in the policy of the nation which is not justified in princi- 
ple. It is not a test of character, of quality, or of personal 
fitness, but would operate in most cases merely as a pen- 
alty for lack of opportunity in the country from which the 
alien seeking admission came. The opportunity to gain 
an education is in many cases one of the chief opportuni- 
ties sought by the immigrant in coming to the United 
States, and our experience in the past has not been that 
the illiterate immigrant is as such an undesirable immi- 
grant. Tests of quality and of purpose can not be objected 
to on principle, but tests of opportunity surely may be. 

"Moreover, even if this test might be equitably in- 
sisted on, one of the exceptions proposed to its application 
involves a provision which might lead to very delicate and 
hazardous diplomatic situations. The bill exempts from 
the operation of the literacy test 'all aliens who shall 







3 Q 

C£ 02 
lJ 02 

W 
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P 



WOODROW WILSON 393 

prove to the satisfaction of the proper immigration officer 
or to the Secretary of Labor that they are seeking admis- 
sion to the United States to avoid religious persecution in 
the country of their last permanent residence, whether 
such persecution be evidenced by overt acts or by laws or 
governmental regulations that discriminate against the 
alien or the race to which he belongs because of his relig- 
ious faith.' Such a provision, so applied and adminis- 
tered, would oblige the officer concerned in effect to pass 
judgment upon the laws and practices of a foreign Gov- 
ernment and declare that they did or did not constitute re- 
ligious persecution. This would, to say the least, be a 
most invidious function for any administrative officer of 
this Government to perform, and it is not only possible, 
but probable, that very serious questions of international 
justice and comity would rise between this Government 
and the government or governments thus officially con- 
demned should its exercise be attempted. I dare say that 
these consequences were not in the minds of the propon- 
ents of this provision, but the provision separately and 
in itself renders it unwise for me to give my assent to this 
legislation in its present form." 

Congress was so determined on passing the bill that 
it was made a law over the President's veto. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
EELATIONS WITH GERMANY SEVERED. 

On January 31, 1917, just one week after President 
Wilson made his offer of peace to the warring nations, 
the Imperial German Government issued a proclamation 
stating that all ships encountered in the restricted zone 
would be sunk without warning, neutral shipping included. 

It was a bolt from a clear sky. 

President Wilson had dealt with the German empire 
in a friendly but firm manner, and this was his answer. 
It meant that American rights were to be ignored alto- 
gether in the struggle for world dominion. 

With the issue presented in those terms, which were 
unmistakable, all the fighting blood of the President was 
aroused. The old strain of Scotch and Irish, that re- 
garded a word of honor as a thing irretractable, came to 
the surface. There was no writing of notes. Count von 
Bernstorff, the German ambassador, was handed his pass- 
ports, and our ambassador in Berlin, James R. Gerard, 
was ordered home. 

Then the President called a joint session of Congress 
and appeared February 3rd to deliver notice of his action. 
He said : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress: The Imperial German 
Government on the 31st of January announced to this 
Government and to the governments of the other neutral 
nations that on and after the first day of February, the 
present month, it would adopt a policy with regard to the 
use of submarines against all shipping seeking to pass 
through certain designated areas of the high seas, to 
which it is clearly my duty to call your attention. 

394 



WOODKOW WILSON 395 

"Let me remind the Congress that on the 18th of 
April last, in view of the sinking on the 24th of March of 
the cross-channel passenger steamer Sussex by a German 
submarine, without summons or warning, and the conse- 
quent loss of the lives of several citizens of the United 
States who were passengers aboard her, this Government 
addressed a note to the Imperial German Government in 
which it made the following declaration : 

'"If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Govern- 
ment to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare 
against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines 
without regard to what the Government of the United 
States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of 
international law and the universally recognized dictates 
of humanity, the Government of the United States is at 
last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it 
can pursue. Unless the Imperial Government should now 
immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its 
present methods of submarine warfare against passenger 
and freight-carrying vessels, the Government of the 
United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic 
relations with the German Empire altogether. ' 

"In reply to this declaration the Imperial German 
Government gave this Government the following assur- 
ance: 

1 ' ' The German Government is prepared to do its 
utmost to confine the operations of war for the rest of its 
duration to the fighting forces of the belligerents, thereby 
also insuring the freedom of the seas, a principle upon 
which the German Government believes, now as before, 
to be in agreement with the Government of the United 
States. 

'"The German Government, guided by this idea, 
notifies the Government of the United States that the Ger- 
man naval forces have received the following orders : In 
accordance with the general principles of visit and search 
and destruction of merchant vessels recognized by inter- 



396 WOODROW WILSON 

national law, such vessels, both within and without the 
area declared as naval war zone, shall not be sunk without 
warning and without saving human lives, unless these 
ships attempt to escape or offer resistance. ' 

" 'But,' it added, 'neutrals can not expect that Ger- 
many, forced to fight for her existence, shall, for the sake 
of neutral interest, restrict the use of an effective weapon 
if her enemy is permitted to continue to apply at will 
methods of warfare violating the rules of international 
law. Such a demand would be incompatible with the char- 
acter of neutrality, and the German Government is con- 
vinced that the Government of the United States does not 
think of making such a demand, knowing that the Govern- 
ment of the United States has repeatedly declared that it 
is determined to restore the principle of the freedom of 
the seas, from whatever quarter it has been violated. ' 

"To this the Government of the United States replied 
on the 8th of May, accepting, of course, the assurances 
given, but adding : 

"'The Government of the United States feels it 
necessary to state that it takes it for granted that the 
Imperial German Government does not intend to imply 
that the maintenance of its newly announced policy is in 
any way contingent upon the course or result of diplo- 
matic negotiations between the Government of the United 
States and any other belligerent Government, notwith- 
standing the fact that certain passages in the Imperial 
Government's note of the 4th instant might appear to be 
susceptible of that construction. In order, however, to 
avoid any possible misunderstanding, the Government 
of the United States notifies the Imperial Government 
that it cannot for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a 
suggestion that respect by German naval authorities for 
the rights of citizens of the United States upon the high 
seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be made 
contingent upon the conduct of any other government 
affecting the rights of neutrals and noncombatants. Re- 



WOODROW WILSON 397 

sponsibility in such matters is single, not joint; absolute, 
not relative.' 

"To this note of the eighth of May the Imperial Ger- 
man Government made no reply. 

"On the thirty-first of January, the Wednesday of 
the present week, the German Ambassador handed to 
the Secretary of State, along with a formal note, a mem- 
orandum which contains the following statement : 

" ' The Imperial Government, therefore, does not 
doubt that the Government of the United States will un- 
derstand the situation thus forced upon Germany by the 
Entente- Allies ' brutal methods of war and by their deter- 
mination to destroy the Central Powers, and that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States will further realize that the 
now openly disclosed intentions of the Entente- Allies give 
back to Germany the freedom of action which she reserved 
in her note addressed to the Government of the United 
States on May 4, 1916. 

" 'Under these circumstances Germany will meet the 
illegal measures of her enemies by forcibly preventing 
after February 1, 1917, in a zone around Great Britain, 
France, Italy, and in the Eastern Mediterranean all navi- 
gation, that of neutrals included, from and to England 
and from and to France, etc., etc. All ships met within 
the zone will be sunk. f 

"I think that you will agree with me that, in view 
of this declaration, which suddenly and without prior in- 
timation of any kind deliberately withdraws the solemn 
assurance given in the Imperial Government's note of 
the fourth of May, 1916, this Government has no alter- 
native consistent with the dignity and honor of the United 
States but to take the course which, in its note of the 
eighteenth of April, 1916, it announced that it would take 
in the event that the German Government did not declare 
and effect an abandonment of the methods of submarine 
warfare which it was then employing and to which it now 
purposes again to resort. 



398 WOODROW WILSON 

"I have, therefore, directed the Secretary of State 
to announce to His Excellency the German Ambassador 
that all diplomatic relations between the United States 
and the German Empire are severed, and that the Ameri- 
can Ambassador at Berlin will immediately be withdrawn ; 
and, in accordance with this decision, to hand to His 
Excellency his passports. 

" Notwithstanding this unexpected action of the Ger- 
man Government, this sudden and deeply deplorable re- 
nunciation of its assurances, given this Government at 
one of the most critical moments of tension in the rela- 
tions of the two governments, I refuse to believe that it is 
the intention of the German authorities to do in fact what 
they have warned us they will feel at liberty to do. I can- 
not bring myself to believe that they will indeed pay no 
regard to the ancient friendship between their people and 
our own or to the solemn obligations which have been 
exchanged between them and destroy American ships and 
take the lives of American citizens in the wilful prosecu- 
tion of the ruthless naval program they have announced 
their intention to adopt. Only actual overt acts on their 
part can make me believe it even now. 

"If this inveterate confidence on my part in the so- 
briety and prudent foresight of their purpose should 
unhappily prove unfounded ; if American ships and Amer- 
ican lives should in fact be sacrificed by their naval 
commanders in heedless contravention of the just and rea- 
sonable understandings of international law and the ob- 
vious dictates of humanity, I shall take the liberty of 
coming again before the Congress, to ask that authority 
be given me to use any means that may be necessary for 
the protection of our seamen and our people in the prose- 
cution of their peaceful and legitimate errands on the 
high seas. I can do nothing less. I take it for granted 
that all neutral governments will take the same course. 

"We do not desire any hostile conflict with the Im- 
perial German Government. We are the sincere friends 



WOODROW WILSON 399 

of the German people and earnestly desire to remain at 
peace with the Government which speaks for them. We 
shall not believe that they are hostile to us unless and 
until we are obliged to believe it ; and we purpose nothing 
more than the reasonable defense of the undoubted rights 
of our people. We wish to serve no selfish ends. We seek 
merely to stand true alike in thought and in action to the 
immemorial principles of our people which I sought to 
express in my address to the Senate only two weeks ago, — 
seek merely to vindicate our right to liberty and justice 
and an unmolested life. These are the bases of peace, 
not war. God grant we may not be challenged to defend 
them by acts of wilful injustice on the part of the Gov- 
ernment of Germany!" 

The country stood united in back of the President. 
There was dissatisfaction in some quarters, created ex- 
pressly by the German agents who were at that time car- 
rying on a relentless propaganda in behalf of the central 
powers. A few native-born Americans announced their 
stand as pacifists, but the great majority of the body 
politic ignored their weak protests. The people were 
stung to the quick and the preponderance of opinion 
supported President Wilson. 

The President's next move was to obtain protection 
for American merchant vessels. With this idea in mind 
he went before Congress on February 26th and demanded 
permission to arm the ships with naval guns for protection 
against submarines. His address follows : 

1 ' Gentlemen of the Congress : I have again asked the 
privilege of addressing you because we are moving 
through critical times during which it seems to me to be 
my duty to keep in close touch with the Houses of Con- 
gress, so that neither counsel nor action shall run at cross 
purposes between us. 

* ' On the third of February I officially informed you 
of the sudden and unexpected action of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government in declaring its intention to disregard 



400 WOODROW WILSON 

the promises it had made to this Government in April last 
and undertake immediate submarine operations against 
all commerce, whether of belligerents or of neutrals, that 
should seek to approach Great Britain and Ireland, the 
Atlantic coasts of Europe, or the harbors of the eastern 
Mediterranean, and to conduct those operations without 
regard to the established restrictions of international 
practice, without regard to any considerations of human- 
ity even which might interfere with their object. That 
policy was forthwith put into practice. It has now been 
in active execution for nearly four weeks. 

' l Its practical results are not yet fully disclosed. The 
commerce of other neutral nations is suffering severely, 
but not, perhaps, very much more severely than it was 
already suffering before the first of February, when the 
new policy of the Imperial Government was put into oper- 
ation. We have asked the cooperation of the other neutral 
governments to prevent these depredations, but so far 
none of them has thought it wise to join us in any common 
course of action. Our own commerce has suffered, is suf- 
fering, rather in apprehension than in fact, rather because 
so many of our ships are timidly keeping to their home 
ports than because American ships have been sunk. 

"Two American vessels have been sunk, the Housa- 
tonic and the Lyman M. Law. The case of the Housa- 
tonic, which was carrying foodstuffs consigned to a Lon- 
don firm, was essentially like the case of the Fry, in which, 
it will be recalled, the German Government admitted its 
liability for damages, and the lives of the crew, as in the 
case of the Fry, were safeguarded with reasonable care. 
The case of the Law, which was carrying lemon-box staves 
to Palermo, disclosed a ruthlessness of method which de- 
serves grave condemnation, but was accompanied by no 
circumstances which might not have been expected at any 
time in connection with the use of the submarine against 
merchantmen as the German Government has used it. 

"In sum, therefore, the situation we find ourselves 



WOODKOW WILSON 401 

in with regard to the actual conduct of the German sub- 
marine warfare against commerce and its effects upon 
our own ships and people is substantially the same that 
it was when I addressed you on the third of February, 
except for the tying up of our shipping in our own ports 
because of the unwillingness of our shipowners to risk 
their vessels at sea without insurance or adequate protec- 
tion, and the very serious congestion of our commerce 
which has resulted, a congestion which is growing rapidly 
more and more serious every day. This in itself might 
presently accomplish, in effect, what the new German sub- 
marine orders were meant to accomplish, so far as we 
are concerned. We can only say, therefore, that the overt 
act which I have ventured to hope the German com- 
manders would in fact avoid has not occurred. 

1 ' But, while this is happily true, it must be admitted 
that there have been certain additional indications and 
expressions of purpose on the part of the German press 
and the German authorities which have increased rather 
than lessened the impression that, if our ships and our 
people are spared, it will be because of fortunate cir- 
cumstances or because the commanders of the German 
submarines which they may happen to encounter exercise 
an unexpected discretion and restraint rather than be- 
cause of the instructions under which these commanders 
are acting. It would be foolish to deny that the situation 
is fraught with the gravest possibilities and clangers. 
No thoughtful man can fail to see that the necessity for 
definite action may come at any time, if we are in fact, 
and not in word merely, to defend our elementary rights 
as a neutral nation. It would be most imprudent to be 
unprepared. 

"I cannot in such circumstances be unmindful of 
the fact that the expiration of the term of the present 
Congress is immediately at hand, by constitutional limita- 
tion ; and that it would in all likelihood require an unusual 
length of time to assemble and organize the Congress 



402 WOODROW WILSON 

which is to succeed it. I feel that I ought, in view of that 
fact, to obtain from you full and immediate assurance of 
the authority which I may need at any moment to exercise. 
No doubt I already possess that authority without special 
warrant of law, by the plain implication of my constitu- 
tional duties and powers ; but I prefer, in the present cir- 
cumstances, not to act upon general implication. I wish 
to feel that the authority and the power of the Congress 
are behind me in whatever it may become necessary for 
me to do. We are jointly the servants of the people and 
must act together and in their spirit, so far as we can 
divine and interpret it. 

"No one doubts what it is our duty to do. We must 
defend our commerce and the lives of our people in the 
midst of the present trying circumstances, with discre- 
tion but with clear and steadfast purpose. Only the 
method and the extent remain to be chosen, upon the 
occasion, if occasion should indeed arise. Since it has 
unhappily proved impossible to safeguard our neutral 
rights by diplomatic means against the unwarranted in- 
fringements they are suffering at the hands of Germany, 
there may be no recourse but to armed neutrality, which 
we shall know how to maintain and for which there is 
abundant American precedent. 

"It is devoutly to be hoped that it will not be neces- 
sary to put armed force anywhere into action. The 
American people do not desire it, and our desire is not 
different from theirs. I am sure that they will under- 
stand the spirit in which I am now acting, the purpose I 
hold nearest my heart and would wish to exhibit in every- 
thing I do. I am anxious that the people of the nations 
at war also should understand and not mistrust us. I 
hope that I need give no further proofs and assurances 
than I have already given throughout nearly three years 
of anxious patience that I am the friend of peace and 
mean to preserve it for America so long as I am able. 
I am not now proposing or contemplating war or any 



WOODROW WILSON 403 

steps that need lead to it. I merely request that you will 
accord me by your own vote and definite bestowal the 
means and the authority to safeguard in practice the 
right of a great people who are at peace and who are 
desirous of exercising none but the rights of peace to fol- 
low the pursuits of peace in quietness and good will — 
rights recognized time out of mind by all the civilized 
nations of the world. No course of my choosing or of 
theirs will lead to war. War can come only by the wilful 
acts and aggressions of others. 

"You will understand why I can make no definite 
proposals or forecasts of action now and must ask for 
your supporting authority in the most general terms. The 
form in which action may become necessary cannot yet be 
foreseen. I believe that the people will be willing to trust 
me to act with restraint, with prudence, and in the true 
spirit of amity and good faith that they have themselves 
displayed throughout these trying months; and it is in 
that belief that I request that you will authorize me to 
supply our merchant ships with defensive arms, should 
that become necessary, and with the means of using them, 
and to employ any other instrumentalities or methods 
that may be necessary and adequate to protect our ships 
and our people in their legitimate and peaceful pursuits 
on the seas. I request also that you will grant me at the 
same time, along with the powers I ask, a sufficient credit 
to enable me to provide adequate means of protection 
where they are lacking, including adequate insurance 
against the present war risks. 

' ' I have spoken of our commerce and of the legitimate 
errands of our people on the seas, but you will not be 
misled as to my main thought, the thought that lies be- 
neath these phrases and gives them dignity and weight. 
It is not of material interests merely that we are thinking. 
It is, rather, of fundamental human rights, chief of all 
the right of life itself. I am thinking, not only of the 
rights of Americans to go and come about their proper 



404 WOODROW WILSON 

business by way of the sea, but also of something much 
deeper, much more fundamental than that. I am thinking 
of those rights of humanity without which there is no civ- 
ilization. My theme is of those great principles of com- 
passion and of protection which mankind has sought to 
throw about human lives, the lives of non-combatants, 
the lives of men who are peacefully at work keep- 
ing the industrial processes of the world quick and vital, 
the lives of women and children and of those who supply 
the labor which ministers to their sustenance. We are 
speaking of no selfish material rights but of rights which 
our hearts support and whose foundation is that righteous 
passion for justice upon which all law, all structures alike 
of family, of state, and of mankind must rest, as upon 
the ultimate base of our existence and our liberty. I can- 
not imagine any man with American principles at his 
heart hesitating to defend these things." 

Although the employment of armed defense meant 
war in case of a clash between an American ship and a 
German submarine, President Wilson did not hesitate. 
His fighting blood was up and he was tired of German 
deceit. A bill was drawn up and presented to Congress 
granting him the authority he desired, but several quib- 
bles prevented its passage. The President then acted on 
the authority conferred on him under the constitution and 
armed the ships. The people again expressed satisfaction 
with his course. 

The country awaited the President's inaugural ad- 
dress with interest, for it was felt that he would outline 
the future course of the United States in the world war. 
At that time he was still confident of his power to keep 
America from being dragged into the war, and did not 
hesitate to say so. His address was delivered on March 
4th as follows : 

' ' The four years which have elapsed since last I stood 
in this place have been crowded with counsel and action 
of the most vital interest and consequence. Perhaps no 



WOODROW WILSON 405 

equal period in our history has been so fruitful of im- 
portant reforms in our economic and industrial life or 
so full of significant changes in the spirit and purpose 
of our political action. We have sought very thoughtfully 
to set our house in order, correct the grosser errors and 
abuses of our industrial life, correct and quicken the proc- 
esses of our national genius and energy, and lift our poli- 
tics to a broader view of the people's essential interests. 
It is a record of singular variety and singular distinction. 
But I shall not attempt to review it. It speaks for itself 
and will be of increasing influence as the years go by. 
This is not the time for retrospect. It is time, rather, to 
speak our thoughts and purposes concerning the present 
and the immediate future. 

1 'Although we have centered counsel and action with 
such unusual concentration and success upon the great 
problems of domestic legislation to which we addressed 
ourselves four years ago, other matters have more and 
more forced themselves upon our attention, matters lying 
outside our own life as a nation and over which we had no 
control, but which, despite our wish to keep free of them, 
have drawn us more and more irresistibly into their own 
current and influence. 

"It has been impossible to avoid them. They have 
affected the life of the whole world. They have shaken 
men everywhere with a passion and an apprehension they 
never knew before. It has been hard to preserve calm 
counsel while the thought of our own people swayed this 
way and that under their influence. We are a composite 
and cosmopolitan people. We are of the blood of all the 
nations that are at war. The currents of our thoughts 
as well as the currents of our trade run quick at all sea- 
sons back and forth between us and them. The war 
inevitably set its mark from the first, alike upon our 
minds, our industries, our commerce, our politics, and 
our social action. To be indifferent to it or independent 
of it was out of the question. 



406 WOODROW WILSON 

"And yet all the while we have been conscious that 
wo were not part of it. In that consciousness, despite 
many divisions, we have drawn closer together. We have 
been deeply wronged upon the seas, but we have not 
wished to wrOng or injure in return; have retained 
throughout the consciousness of standing in some sort 
apart, intent upon an interest that transcended the im- 
mediate issues of the war itself. As some of the injuries 
done us have become intolerable we have still been clear 
that we wished nothing for ourselves that we were not 
ready to demand for all mankind — fair dealing, justice, 
the freedom to live and be at ease against organized 
wrong. 

"It is in this spirit and with this thought that we 
have grown more and more aware, more and more cer- 
tain that the part we wished to play was the part of those 
who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. We have been 
obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to a 
certain minimum of right and of freedom of action. We 
stand firm in armed neutrality since it seems that in no 
other way we can demonstrate what it is we insist upon 
and cannot forego. We may even be drawn on, by cir- 
cumstances, not by our own purpose or desire, to a more 
active assertion of our rights as we see them and a more 
immediate association with the great struggle itself. But 
nothing will alter our thought or our purpose. They are 
too clear to be obscured. They are too deeply rooted in 
the principles of our national life to be altered. We 
desire neither conquest nor advantage. We wish nothing 
that can be had only at the cost of another people. We 
have always professed unselfish purpose and we covet 
the opportunity to prove that our professions are sincere. 
"There are many things still to do at home, to clarify 
our own politics and give new vitality to the industrial 
processes of our own life, and we shall do them as time 
and opportunity serve; but we realize that the greatest 
things that remain to be done must be done with the whole 



WOODROW WILSON 407 

world for stage and in cooperation with the wide and 
universal forces of mankind, and we are making our 
spirits ready for those things. They will follow in the 
immediate wake of the war itself and will set civilization 
up again. We are provincials no longer. The tragical 
events of the thirty months of vital turmoil through which 
we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. 
There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a 
nation are involved, whether we would have it so or not. 

"And yet we are not the less Americans on that 
account. We shall be the more American if we but remain 
true to the principles in which we have been bred. They 
are not the principles of a province or of a single conti- 
nent. We have known and boasted all along that they 
were the principles of a liberated mankind. These, 
therefore, are the things we shall stand for, whether in 
war or in peace: 

"That all nations are equally interested in the peace 
of the world and in the political stability of free peoples, 
and equally responsible for their maintenance; 

"That the essential principle of peace is the actual 
equality of nations in all matters of right or privilege ; 

"That peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an 
armed balance of power; 

"That governments derive all their just powers from 
the consent of the governed and that no other powers 
should be supported by the common thought, purpose, or 
power of the family of nations. 

"That the seas should be equally free and safe for the 
use of all peoples, under rules set up by common agree- 
ment and consent, and that, so far as practicable, they 
should be accessible to all upon equal terms ; 

"That national armaments should be limited to the 
necessities of national order and domestic safety; 

4 ' That the community of interest and of power upon 
which peace must henceforth depend imposes upon each 
nation the duty of seeing to it that all influences proceed- 



408 WOODROW WILSON 

ing from its own citizens meant to encourage or assist 
revolution in other states should be sternly and effectually 
suppressed and prevented. 

"I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow 
countrymen : they are your own, part and parcel of your 
own thinking and your own motive in affairs. They spring 
up native among us. Upon this as a platform of purpose 
and of action we can stand together. 

4 'And it is imperative that we should stand together. 
We are being forged into a new unity amidst the fires that 
now blaze throughout the world. In their ardent heat 
we shall, in God's providence, let us hope, be purged of 
faction and division, purified of the errant humors of 
party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in the 
days to come with a new dignity of national pride and 
spirit. Let each man see to it that the dedication is in 
his own heart, the high purpose of the Nation in his own 
mind, ruler of his own will and desire. 

"I stand here and have taken the high and solemn 
oath to which you have been audience because the people 
of the United States have chosen me for this august dele- 
gation of power and have by their gracious judgment 
named me their leader in affairs. I know now what the 
task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which 
it involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and 
the prudence to do my duty in the true spirit of this great 
people. I am their servant and can succeed only as they 
sustain and guide me by their confidence and their coun- 
sel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing without which 
neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of 
America — an America united in feeling, in purpose, and 
in its vision of duty, of opportunity, and of service. We 
are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the 
necessities of the Nation to their own private profit or 
use them for the building up of private power; beware 
that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony 
or embarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our 



WOODROW WILSON 409 

Government be kept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. 
United alike in the conception of our duty and in the high 
resolve to perform it in the face of all men, let us dedicate 
ourselves to the great task to which we must now set our 
hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, your countenance, 
and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark upon 
our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with 
the light all about us if we be but true to ourselves — to 
ourselves as we have wished to be known in the counsels 
of the world and in the thought of all those who love 
liberty and justice and the right exalted." 

The American people were satisfied with the address. 
They were not in favor of war at this time unless unmis- 
takable cause should be given and were opposed to taking 
the aggressive against Germany. In this they followed 
the reasoning of the President, who felt that the life of 
one American soldier was worth' more than the praise of 
the party who was clamoring for war. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE UNITED STATES AT WAR. 

Germany's answer to the President's order for all 
merchant ships to arm for defense was a proclamation 
that the American gunners would be taken from the ves- 
sels and executed as pirates. 

The statement was so unreasonable that President 
Wilson cast off all restraint. He went before Congress 
on the afternoon of April 2, 1917, and asked that the 
United States accept the status of belligerent which had 
been thrust upon it by Germany. His immortal address 
follows : 

" Gentlemen of the Congress : I have called the Con- 
gress into extraordinary session because there are 
serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and 
made immediately, which it was neither right nor consti- 
tutionally permissible that I should assume the responsi- 
bility of making. 

1 i On the 3rd of February last I officially laid before 
you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government that on and after the first day of Feb- 
ruary it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law 
or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every ves- 
sel that sought to approach either the ports of Great 
Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or 
any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany 
within the Mediterranean. That had seemed to be the 
object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the 
war, but since April of last year the Imperial Government 
had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea 
craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that 
passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning 

410 






WOODROW WILSON 411 

would be given to all other vessels which its submarines 
might seek to destroy, when no resistance was offered or 
escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were 
given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open 
boats. The precautions taken were meager and haphaz- 
ard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after 
instance in the progress of the cruel and unmanly busi- 
ness, but a certain degree of restraint was observed. The 
new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of 
every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their 
cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly 
sent to the bottom without warning and without thought 
of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly 
neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital 
ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and 
stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were pro- 
vided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by 
the German Government itself and were distinguished by 
unmistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the 
same reckless lack of compassion or of principle. 

"I was for a little while unable to believe that such 
things would in fact be done by any government that had 
hitherto subscribed to the humane practices of civilized 
nations. International law had its origin in the attempt 
to set up some law which would be respected and observed 
upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion and 
where lay the free highways of the world. By painful 
stage after stage has that law been built up, with meager 
enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished that 
could be accomplished, but always with a clear view, at 
least, of what the heart and conscience of mankind de- 
manded. This minimum of right the German Govern- 
ment has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and 
necessity and because it had no weapons which it could 
use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as 
it is employing them without throwing to the winds all 
scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings 



412 WOODROW WILSON 

that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the 
world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property in- 
volved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the 
wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of non-com- 
batants, men, women and children, engaged in pursuits 
which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern 
history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property 
can be paid for ; the lives of peaceful and innocent people 
cannot be. The present German submarine warfare 
against commerce is a warfare against mankind. 

" It is a war against all nations. American ships have 
been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has 
stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people 
of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and 
overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has 
been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. 
Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The 
choice we make for ourselves must be made with a mod- 
eration of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befit- 
ting our character and our motives as a nation. We must 
put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge 
or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the 
nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, 
of which we are only a single champion. 

' ' When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of Feb- 
ruary last I thought that it would suffice to assert our 
neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against 
unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe 
against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now 
appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in 
effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have 
been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to 
defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations 
has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves 
against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase 
upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such cir- 
cumstances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavor to destroy 



WOODROW WILSON 413 

them before they have shown their own intention. They 
must be dealt with npon sight, if dealt with at all. The 
German Government denies the right of neutrals to use 
arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has pro- 
scribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern 
publicist has ever before questions their right to de- 
fend. The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards 
which we have placed on our merchant ships will be 
treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt 
with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual 
enough at best ; in such circumstances and in the face of 
such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely 
only to produce what it was meant to prevent ; it is prac- 
tically certain to draw us into the war without either the 
rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one 
choice we can not make, we are incapable of making : we 
will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most 
sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored 
or violated. The wrongs against which we now array our- 
selves are no common wrongs : they cut to the very roots 
of human life. 

"With a profound sense of the solemn and even trag- 
ical character of the step I am taking and of the grave 
responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating 
obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise 
that the Congress declare the recent course of the Im- 
perial German Government to be in fact nothing less than 
war against the Government and people of the United 
States ; that it formally accept the status of belligerent 
which has thus been thrust upon it ; and that it take im- 
mediate steps not only to put the country in a more 
thorough state of defense, but also to exert all its power 
and employ all its resources to bring the Government of 
the German Empire to terms and end the war. 

"What this will involve is clear. It will involve the 
utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action with 
the governments now at war with Germany, and, as inci- 



414 WOODROW WILSON 

dent to that, the extension to those governments of the 
most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources 
may so far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve 
the organization and mobilization of all the material re- 
sources of the country to supply the materials of war and 
serve the incidental needs of the nation in the most 
abundant and yet the most economical and efficient way 
possible. It will involve the immediate full equipment of 
the navy in all respects, but particularly in supplying it 
with the best means of dealing with the enemy's sub- 
marines. It will involve the immediate addition to the 
armed forces of the United States already provided for 
by law in case of war at least five hundred thousand men, 
who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle 
of universal liability to service, and also the authorization 
of subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon 
as they may be needed and can be handled in training. It 
will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate cred- 
its to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they 
can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by 
well conceived taxation. 

"I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxa- 
tion because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to 
base the credits which will now be necessary entirely on 
money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, 
to protect our people so far as we may against the very 
serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise 
out of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans. 

"In carrying out the measures by which these things 
are to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind 
the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own 
preparation and in the equipment of our own military 
forces with the duty, — for it will be a very practical duty, 
— of supplying the nations already at war with Germany 
with the materials which they can obtain only from us or 
by our assistance. They are in the field and we should 
help them in every way to be effective there. 



WOODROW WILSON 415 

"I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the 
several executive departments of the Government, for the 
consideration of your committees, measures for the ac- 
complishment of the several objects I have mentioned. I 
hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as 
having been framed after very careful thought by the 
branch of the Government upon which the responsibility 
of conducting the war and safeguarding the nation will 
most directly fall. 

" While we do these things, these deeply momentous 
things, let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the 
world what our motives and our objects are. My own 
thought has not been driven from its habitual and normal 
course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and 
I do not believe that the thought of the nation has been 
altered or clouded by them. I have exactly the same 
things in mind now that I had in mind when I addressed 
the Senate on the 22nd of January last; the same that I 
had in mind when I addressed the Congress on the 3rd of 
February and on the 26th of February. Our object now, 
as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice 
in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic 
power and to set up amongst the really free and self-gov- 
erned peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and 
of action as will henceforth ensure the observance of those 
principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable 
where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom 
of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom 
lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by 
organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, 
not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of 
neutrality in such circumstances. We are at the begin- 
ning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same 
standards of conduct and responsibility for wrong done 
shall be observed among nations and their governments 
that are observed among the individual citizens of civ- 
ilized states. 



416 WOODROW WILSON 

"We have no quarrel with the German people. We 
have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and 
friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their gov- 
ernment acted in entering this war. It was not with their 
previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined 
upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, un- 
happy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their 
rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest 
of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who 
were accustomed to use their fellow men as pawns and 
tools. Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor 
states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring 
about some critical posture of affairs which will give them 
an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such de- 
signs can be successfully worked out only under cover and 
where no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly 
contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, it 
may be, from generation to generation, can be worked out 
and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts 
or behind the carefully guarded confidences of a narrow 
and privileged class. They are happily impossible where 
public opinion commands and insists upon full informa- 
tion concerning all the nation's affairs. 

"A steadfast concert for peace can never be main- 
tained except by a partnership of democratic nations. No 
autocratic government could be trusted to keep faith 
within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of 
honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its 
vitals away ; the plottings of inner circles who could plan 
what they would and render account to no one would be 
a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples 
can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a com- 
mon end and prefer the interests of mankind to any nar- 
row interest of their own. 

"Does not every American feel that assurance has 
been added to our hope for the future peace of the world 
by the wonderful and heartening things that have been 



WOODROW WILSON 417 

happening within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia 
was known by those who knew it best to have been always 
in fact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her 
thought, in all the intimate relationships of her people 
that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual attitude 
towards life. The autocracy that crowned the summit of 
her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as 
was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in 
origin, character, or purpose ; and now it has been shaken 
off and the great, generous Russian people have Been 
added in all their naive majesty and might to the forces 
that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and 
for peace. Here is a fit partner for a League of Honor. 
' ' One of the things that has served to convince us that 
the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our 
friend is that from the very outset of the present war it 
has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our 
offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues 
everywhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, 
our peace within and without, our industries and our com- 
merce. Indeed it is now evident that its spies were here 
even before the war began ; and it is unhappily not a mat- 
ter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts of justice 
that the intrigues which have more than once come peril- 
ously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the 
industries of the country have been carried on at the insti- 
gation, with the support, and even under the personal 
direction of official agents of the Imperial Government 
accredited to the Government of the United States. Even 
in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we 
have sought to put the most generous interpretation pos- 
sible upon them because we know that their source lay, not 
in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people 
towards us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as 
we ourselves were), but only in the selfish designs of a 
Government that did what it pleased and told its people 
nothing. But they have played their part in serving to 



418 WOODROW WILSON 

convince us at last that that Government entertains no 
real friendship for us and means to act against our peace 
and security at its convenience. That it means to stir up 
enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note 
to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evi- 
dence. 

"We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose 
because we know that in such a government, following 
such methods, we can never have a friend ; and that in the 
presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to 
accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no 
assured security for the democratic governments of the 
world. We are now about to accept gauge of battle with 
this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend 
the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pre- 
tensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the 
facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight 
thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the lib- 
eration of its peoples, the German peoples included : for 
the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of 
men everywhere to choose their way of life and of 
obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. 
Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of 
political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We 
desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities 
for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices 
we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of 
the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those 
rights have been made as secure as the faith and the free- 
dom of nations can make them. 

"Just because we fight without rancor and without 
selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we 
shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel 
confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without 
passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the 
principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fight- 
ing for. 



WOODROW WILSON 419 

1 'I have said nothing of the governments allied with 
the Imperial Government of Germany because they have 
not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our 
right and our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government 
has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and ac- 
ceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare 
adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German 
Government, and it has therefore not been possible for 
this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Ambas- 
sador recently accredited to this Government by the Im- 
perial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but 
that Government has not actually engaged in warfare 
against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I 
take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a 
discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. 
We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into 
it because there are no other means of defending our 
rights. 

"It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves 
as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness be- 
cause we act without animus, not in enmity towards a 
people or with the desire to bring any injury or disad- 
vantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an 
irresponsible government which has thrown aside all con- 
siderations of humanity and of right and is running 
amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of 
the German people, and shall des'ire nothing so much as 
the early re-establishment of intimate relations of mutual 
advantage between us, — however hard it may be for them, 
for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our 
hearts. We have borne with their present government 
through all these bitter months because of that friend- 
ship^ — exercising a patience and forbearance which would 
otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still 
have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily 
attitude and actions towards the millions of men and 
women of German birth and native sympathy who live 



420 WOODROW WILSON 

amongst us and share our life, and we shall be proud to 
prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neigh- 
bors and to the Government in the hour of test. They are, 
most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had 
never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be 
prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the 
few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If there 
should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand 
of stern repression ; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will 
lift it only here and there and without countenance except 
from a lawless and malignant few. 

"It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen 
of the Congress, which I have performed in thus address- 
ing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial 
and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this 
great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and 
disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in 
the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, 
and we shall fight for the things which we have always 
carried nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right 
of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their 
own governments, for the rights and liberties of small 
nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a con- 
cert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all 
nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a 
task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, every- 
thing that we are and everything that we have, with the 
pride of those who know that the day has come when 
America is privileged to spend her blood and her might 
for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and 
the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she 
can do no other." 

The request of the President was immediately car- 
ried out and on April 6th the declaration of war was 
passed in the Senate by a vote of 82 to 6, and in the House 
of Representatives by a vote of 373 to 50. It was im- 



WOODROW WILSON 421 

mediately signed by the President and included in a proc- 
lamation, which read as follows : 

"Whereas the Congress of the United States in the 
exercise of the constitutional authority vested in them 
have resolved, by joint resolution of the Senate and House 
of Representatives bearing date this day ' That the state 
of war between the United States and the Imperial Ger- 
man Government which has been thrust upon the United 
States is hereby formally declared'; 

"Whereas it is provided by section four thousand 
and sixty-seven of the Eevised Statutes, as follows : 

11 'Whenever there is declared a war between the 
United States and any foreign nation or government, or 
any invasion of predatory incursion is perpetrated, at- 
tempted, or threatened against the territory of the United 
States, by any foreign nation or government, and the 
President makes public proclamation of the event, all 
natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation 
or government, being males of the age of fourteen years 
and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and 
not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, 
restrained, secured, and removed, as alien enemies. The 
President is authorized, in any such event, by his procla- 
mation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct 
to be observed, on the part of the United States, toward 
the aliens who become so liable ; the manner and degree of 
the restraint to which they shall be subject, and in what 
cases, and upon what security their residence shall be per- 
mitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not 
being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse 
or neglect to depart therefrom ; and to establish any other 
regulations which are found necessary in the premises 
and for the public safety'; 

"Whereas, by sections four thousand and sixty-eight, 
four thousand and sixty-nine, and four thousand and sev- 
enty, of the Revised Statutes, further provision is made 
relative to alien enemies ; 



422 WOODROW WILSON 

"Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of 
the United States of America, do hereby proclaim to all 
whom it may concern that a state of war exists between 
the United States and the Imperial German Government; 
and I do specially direct all officers, civil or military, of 
the United States that they exercise vigilance and zeal 
in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of 
war ; and I do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all Ameri- 
can citizens that they, in loyal devotion to their country, 
dedicated from its foundation to the principles of liberty 
and justice, uphold the laws- of the land, and give undi- 
vided and willing support to those measures which may be 
adopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecuting 
the war to a successful issue and in obtaining a secure and 
just peace; 

"And, acting under and by virtue of the authority 
vested in me by the Constitution of the United States and 
the said sections of the Revised Statutes, I do hereby fur- 
ther proclaim and direct that the conduct to be observed 
on the part of the United States towards all natives, citi- 
zens, denizens, or subjects of Germany, being males of the 
age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within 
the United States and not actually naturalized, who^ for 
the purpose of this proclamation and under such sections 
of the Revised Statutes are termed alien enemies, shall be 
as follows : 

"All alien enemies are enjoined to preserve the peace 
towards the United States and to refrain from crime 
against the public safety, and from violating the laws of 
the United States and of the States and Territories there- 
of, and to refrain from actual hostility or giving informa- 
tion, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States, 
and to comply strictly with the regulations which are 
hereby or which may be from time to time promulgated 
by the President ; and so long as they shall conduct them- 
selves in accordance with law, they shall be undisturbed 
in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occupations and 



WOODROW WILSON 423 

be accorded the consideration due to all peaceful and law- 
abiding persons, except so far as restrictions may be 
necessary for their own protection and for the safety of 
the United States ; and towards such alien enemies as con- 
duct themselves in accordance with law, all citizens of the 
United States are enjoined to preserve the peace and to 
treat them with all such friendliness as may be compati- 
ble with loyalty and allegiance to the United States ; 

"And all alien enemies who fail to conduct them- 
selves as so enjoined, in addition to all other penalties 
prescribed by law, shall be liable to restraint, or to give 
security, or to remove and depart from the United States 
in the manner prescribed by sections four thousand and 
sixty-nine and four thousand and seventy of the Revised 
Statutes, and as prescribed in the regulations duly pro- 
mulgated by the President ; 

"And pursuant to the authority vested in me, I here- 
by declare and establish the following regulations, which 
I find necessary in the premises and for the public safety : 

" ' (1) An alien enemy shall not have in his posses- 
sion, at any time or place, any firearm, weapon, or imple- 
ment of war, or component part thereof, ammunition, 
maxim or other silencer, bomb or explosive or material 
used in the manufacture of explosives ; 

" ' (2) An alien enemy shall not have in his posses- 
sion at any time or place or use or operate any aircraft or 
wireless apparatus, or any form of signalling device, or 
any form of cipher code, or any paper, document or book 
written or printed in cipher or in which there may be in- 
visible writing ; 

"'(3) All property found in the possession of an 
alien enemy in violation of the foregoing regulations shall 
be subject to seizure by the United States ; 

"'(4) An alien enemy shall not approach or be 
found within one-half of a mile of any Federal or State 
fort, camp, arsenal, aircraft station, Government or naval 



424 WOODROW WILSON 

vessel, navy yard, factory, or workshop for the manufac- 
ture of munitions of war or of any products for the use of 
the army or navy ; 

" * (5) An alien enemy shall not write, print, or pub- 
lish any attack or threats against the Government or Con- 
gress of the United States, or either branch thereof, or 
against the measures or policy of the United States, or 
against the person or property of any person in the mili- 
tary, naval, or civil service of the United States, or of the 
States or Territories, or of the District of Columbia, or of 
the municipal governments therein ; 

" ' (6) An alien enemy shall not commit or abet any 
hostile act against the United States, or give information, 
aid, or comfort to its enemies ; 

" ' (7) An alien enemy shall not reside in or continue 
to reside in, to remain in, or enter any locality which the 
President may from time to time designate by Executive 
Order as a prohibited area in which residence by an alien 
enemy shall be found by him to constitute a danger to the 
public peace and safety of the United States, except by 
permit from the President and except under such limita- 
tions or restrictions as the President may prescribe ; 

"'(8) An alien enemy whom the President shall 
have reasonable cause to believe to be aiding or about to 
aid the enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the public 
peace o$ safety of the United States, or to have violated 
or to be about to violate any of these regulations, shall 
remove to any location designated by the President by 
Executive Order, and shall not remove therefrom without 
a permit, or shall depart from the United States if so re- 
quired by the President ; 

* ' * (9) No alien enemy shall depart from the United 
States until he shall have received such permit as the 
President shall prescribe, or except under order of a 
court, judge, or justice, under sections 4069 and 4070 of 
the Revised Statutes ; 

"'(10) No alien enemy shall land in or enter the 




VICTORIOUS COMMANDERS. 

GENERAL PERSHING, Commander-in-Chief of the American Armies. 

GENERAL, FERDINAND FOCH, Commander-in-Chief of All Allied Forces. 

FIELD MARSHALL HAIG. Head of the British Armies. 

ADMIRAL SIMS, Commander-in-Chief of the Tinted States Navy In 

European Waters. 

SIR JOHN JELLICOE, Lord High Admiral of the British Navy. 

GENERAL GUILLAUMAT, FYench Army Commander 

GENERAL CADORNA, First Commander of Italian Forces. 



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WOODROW WILSON 429 

United States, except under such restrictions and at such 
places as the President may prescribe ; 

"'(11) If necessary to prevent violations of these 
regulations, all alien enemies will be obliged to register ; 

" ' (12) An alien enemy whom there may be reasona- 
ble cause to believe to be aiding or about to aid the enemy, 
or who may be at large to the danger of the public peace or 
safety, or who violates or attempts to violate, or of whom 
there is reasonable ground to believe that he is about to 
violate, any regulation duly promulgated by the Presi- 
dent, or any criminal law of the United States, or of the 
States or Territories thereof, will be subject to summary 
arrest by the United States marshal, or his deputy, or 
such other officer as the President shall designate, and to 
confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, military 
camp, or other place of detention as may be directed by 
the President.' 

"This proclamation and the regulations herein con- 
tained shall extend and apply to all land and water, con- 
tinental or insular, in any way within the jurisdiction of 
the United States. 

"Is witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Done at the City of Washington, this 6th day of 
April, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred 
and seventeen, and of the independence of the United 
States the one hundred and forty-first. 

"Woodrow Wilson.' ' 

The proclamation of war was not the only legislation 
Congress acted on. A war budget of $21,390,730,940 was 
passed immediately. The budget was followed by laws 
prohibiting trading with the enemy, espionage, and the 
unlawful manufacture of explosives. War risk insurance 
for men in service was also provided in connection with 
legislation to increase the pay of the fighting men. 



CHAPTER XXV 
THE APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

President Wilson issued an address to the American 
people on April 16th. This masterly document follows : 

"The entrance of our own beloved country into the 
grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights 
which has shaken the world creates so many problems of 
national life and action which call for immediate consid- 
eration and settlement that I hope you will permit me to 
address to you a few words of earnest counsel and appeal 
with regard to them. 

"We are rapidly putting our navy upon an efficient 
war footing and are about to create and equip a great 
army, but these are the simplest parts of the great task 
to which we have addressed ourselves. There is not a 
single selfish element, so far as I can see, in the cause we 
are fighting for. We are fighting for what we believe and 
wish to be the rights of mankind and for the future peace 
and security of the world. To do this great thing worthily 
and successfully we must devote ourselves to the service 
without regard to profit or material advantage and with 
an energy and intelligence that will rise to the level of the 
enterprise itself. We must realize to the full how great 
the task is and how many things, how many kinds and ele- 
ments of capacity and service and self-sacrifice, it in- 
volves. 

"These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, 
besides fighting, — the things without which mere fighting 
would be fruitless : 

"We must supply abundant food for ourselves and 
for our armies and our seamen not only, but also for a 
large part of the nations with whom we have now made 

430 



WOODROW WILSON 431 

common cause, in whose support and by whose sides we 
shall be fighting; 

"We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our 
shipyards to carry to the other side of the sea, submarines 
or no submarines, what will every day be needed there, 
and abundant materials out of our fields and our mines 
and our factories with which not only to clothe and equip 
our own forces on land and sea but also to clothe and sup- 
port our people for whom the gallant fellows under arms 
can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies 
with which we are cooperating in Europe, and to keep the 
looms and manufactories there in raw material; coal to 
keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces 
of hundreds of factories across the sea ; steel out of which 
to make arms and ammunition both here and there ; rails 
for worn-out railways back of the fighting fronts ; loco- 
motives and rolling stock to take the place of those every 
day going to pieces ; mules, horses, cattle for labor and for 
military service; everything with which the people of 
England and France and Italy and Russia have usually 
supplied themselves but cannot now afford the men, the 
materials, or the machinery to make. 

"It is evident to every thinking man that our indus- 
tries, on the farms, the shipyards, in the mines, in the 
factories, must be made more prolific and more efficient 
than ever and that they must be more economically man- 
aged and better adapted to the particular requirements 
of our task than they have been ; and what I want to say 
is that the men and the women who devote their thought 
and their energy to these things will be serving the 
country and conducting the fight for peace and freedom 
just as truly and just as effectively as the men on the 
battlefield or in the trenches. The industrial forces of 
the country, men and women alike, will be a great na- 
tional, a great international, Service Army,— a notable 
and honored host engaged in the service of the nation 
and the world, the efficient friends and saviors of free 



432 WOODROW WILSON 

men everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds of thou- 
sands, of men otherwise liable to military service will of 
right and of necessity be excused from that service and 
assigned to the fundamental, sustaining work of the fields 
and factories and mines, and they will be as much part 
of the great patriotic forces of the nation as the men 
under fire. 

"I take the liberty, therefore, of addressing this 
word to the farmers of the country and to all who work 
on the farms : The supreme need of our own nation and 
of the nations with which we are cooperating is an abun- 
dance of supplies, and especially of food stuffs. The 
importance of an adequate food supply, especially for 
the present year, is superlative. Without abundant food, 
alike for the armies and the peoples now at war, the whole 
great enterprise upon which we have embarked will break 
down and fail. The world 's food reserves are low. Not 
only during the present emergency but for some time 
after peace shall have come both our own people and a 
large proportion of the people of Europe must rely upon 
the harvests in America. Upon the farmers of this coun- 
try, therefore, in large measure, rests the fate of the war 
and the fate of the nations. May the nation not count 
upon them to omit no step that will increase the produc- 
tion of their land or that will bring about the most ef- 
fectual cooperation in the sale and distribution of their 
products? The time is short. It is of the most impera- 
tive importance that everything possible be done and 
done immediately to make sure of large harvests. I call 
upon young men and old alike and upon the able-bodied 
boys of the land to accept and act upon this duty — to 
turn in hosts to the farms and make certain that no pains 
and no labor is lacking in this great matter. 

"I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South 
to plant abundant food stuffs as well as cotton. They can 
show their patriotism in no better or more convincing 
way than by resisting the great temptation of the present 



WOODROW WILSON 433 

price of cotton and helping, helping upon a great scale, to 
feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fight- 
ing for their liberties and for our own. The variety of 
their crops will be the visible measure of their compre- 
hension of their national duty. 

"The Government of the United States and the gov- 
ernments of the several States stand ready to cooperate. 
They will do everything possible to assist farmers in 
securing an adequate supply of seed, an adequate force 
of laborers when they are most needed, at harvest time, 
and the means of expediting shipments of fertilizers and 
farm machinery, as well as of the crops themselves when 
harvested. The course of trade shall be as unhampered 
as it is possible to make it and there shall be no 
unwarranted manipulation of the nation's food supply 
by those who handle it on its way to the consumer. This 
is our opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of a great 
Democracy and we shall not fall short of it ! 

"This let me say to the middlemen of every sort, 
whether they are handling our food stuffs or our raw 
materials of manufacture or the products of our mills 
and factories : The eyes of the country will be especially 
upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, 
efficient and disinterested. The country expects you, 
as it expects all others, to forego unusual profits, to or- 
ganize and expedite shipments of supplies of every kind, 
but especially of food, with an eye to the service you are 
rendering and in the spirit of those who enlist in the 
ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shall con- 
fidently expect you to deserve and win the confidence of 
people of every sort and station. 

"To the men who run the railways of the country, 
whether they be managers or operative employees, let 
me say that the railways are the arteries of the nation's 
life and that upon them rests the immense responsibility 
of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no obstruction 
of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. To the 



434 WOODROW WILSON 

merchant let me suggest the motto, "Small profits and 
quick service"; and to the shipbuilder the thought that 
the life of the war depends upon him. The food and the 
war supplies must be carried across the seas no matter 
how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of 
those that go down must be supplied and supplied at once. 
To the miner let me say that he stands where the farmer 
does : the work of the world waits on him. If he slackens 
or fails, armies and statesmen are helpless. He also is 
enlisted in the great Service Army. The manufacturer 
does not need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks to 
him to speed and perfect every process ; and I want only 
to remind his employees that their service is absolutely 
indispensable and is counted on by every man who loves 
the country and its liberties. 

"Let me suggest, also, that everyone who creates or 
cultivates a garden helps, and helps greatly, to solve the 
problem of the feeding of the nations; and that every 
housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in 
the ranks of those who serve the nation. This is the time 
for America to correct her unpardonable fault of waste- 
fulness and extravagance. Let every man and every 
woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and 
expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism 
which no one can now expect ever to be excused or for- 
given for ignoring. 

"In the hope that this statement of the needs of 
the nation and of the world in this hour of supreme crisis 
may stimulate those to whom it comes and remind all 
who need reminder of the solemn duties of a time such as 
the world has never seen before, I beg that all editors 
and publishers everywhere will give as prominent publi- 
cation and as wide circulation as possible to this appeal. 
I venture to suggest, also, to all advertising agencies that 
they would perhaps render a very substantial and timely 
service to the country if they would give it widespread 
repetition. And I hope that clergymen will not think the 



WOODROW WILSON 435 

theme of it an unworthy or inappropriate subject of com- 
ment and homily from their pulpits. 

"The supreme test of the nation has come. We must 
all speak, act, and serve together ! ' ' 

On May 18th the selective service legislation asked by 
President Wilson became a law and the vast machinery 
of the election system was put in motion to register men 
for service. The day set was June 5th and 9,683,445 men 
signed their names to the rolls. By September 15th, the 
sound of marching feet was heard in every city, village 
and hamlet as America went to war. The troops were 
trained in great cantonments which were built almost 
over night. 

The raising of an army threatened to upset the in- 
dustrial situation to such an extent that total stagna- 
tion of the food market was impending and this led Presi- 
dent Wilson to issue a food proclamation on May 19th, 
as follows : 

"It is very desirable, in order to prevent misunder- 
standings or alarms and to assure cooperation in a vital 
matter, that the country should understand exactly the 
scope and purpose of the very great powers which I have 
thought it necessary in the circumstances to ask the Con- 
gress to put in my hands with regard to our food sup- 
plies. Those powers are very great, indeed, but they are 
no greater than it has proved necessary to lodge in the 
other Governments which are conducting this momentous 
war, and their object is stimulation and conservation, not 
arbitrary restraint or injurious interference with the 
normal processes of production. They are intended to 
benefit and assist the farmer and all those who play a 
legitimate part in the preparation, distribution, and mar- 
keting of foodstuffs. 

"It is proposed to draw a sharp line of distinction 
between the normal activities of the Government repre- 
sented in the Department of Agriculture in reference to 
food production, conservation, and marketing, on the 



436 WOODROW WILSON 

one hand, and the emergency activities necessitated by 
the war in reference to the regulation of food distribution 
and consumption, on the other. All measures intended 
directly to extend the normal activities of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture in reference to the production, con- 
servation, and the marketing of farm crops will be ad- 
ministered, as in normal times, through that department, 
and the powers asked for over distribution and consump- 
tion, over exports, imports, prices, purchase, and requi- 
sition of commodities, storing, and the like which may 
require regulation during the war will be placed in the 
hands of a Commissioner of Food Administration, ap- 
pointed by the President and directly responsible to him. 

"The objects sought to be served by the legislation 
asked for are : Full inquiry into the existing available 
stocks of foodstuffs and into the costs and practices of 
the various food-producing and distributing trades ; the 
prevention of all unwarranted hoarding of every kind 
and of the control of foodstuffs by persons who are not 
in any legitimate sense producers, dealers, or traders; 
the requisitioning when necessary for the public use of 
food supplies and of the equipment necessary for hand- 
ling them properly ; the licensing of wholesome and legiti- 
mate mixtures and milling percentages, and the prohibi- 
tion of the unnecessary or wasteful use of foods. 

"Authority is asked also to establish prices, but not 
in order to limit the profits of the farmers, but only to 
guarantee to them when necessary a minimum price 
which will insure them a profit where they are asked to 
attempt new crops and to secure the consumer against 
extortion by breaking up corners and attempts at specu- 
lation, when they occur, by fixing temporarily a reason- 
able price at which middlemen must sell. 

"I have asked Mr. Herbert Hoover to undertake 
this all-important ta'sk of food administration. He has 
expressed his willingness to do so on condition that he 
is to receive no payment for his services and that the 



WOODROW WILSON 437 

whole of the force under him, exclusive of clerical as- 
sistance, shall be employed, so far as possible, upon the 
same volunteer basis. He has expressed his confidence 
that this difficult matter of food administration can be 
successfully accomplished through the voluntary coopera- 
tion and direction of legitimate distributors of foodstuffs 
and with the help of the women of the country. 

''Although it is absolutely necessary that unques- 
tionable powers shall be placed in my hands, in order to 
insure the success of this administration of the food sup- 
plies of the country, I am confident that the exercise of 
those powers will be necessary only in the few cases where 
some small and selfish minority proves unwilling to put 
the nation's interests above personal advantage, and that 
the whole country will heartily support Mr. Hoover's 
efforts by supplying the necessary volunteer agencies 
throughout the country for the intelligent control of food 
consumption and securing the cooperation of the most 
capable leaders of the very interests most directly af- 
fected, that the exercise of the powers deputed to him will 
rest very successfully upon the good-will and cooperation 
of the people themselves, and that the ordinary economic 
machinery of the country will be left substantially un- 
disturbed. 

"The proposed food administration is intended, of 
course, only to meet a manifest emergency and to con- 
tinue only while the war lasts. Since it will be composed, 
for the most part, of volunteers, there need be no fear 
of the possibility of a permanent bureaucracy arising out 
of it. All control of consumption will disappear when 
the emergency has passed. It is with that object in view 
that the Administration considers it to be of pre-eminent 
importance that the existing associations of producers 
and distributers of foodstuffs should be mobilized and 
made use of on a volunteer basis. The successful con- 
duct of the projected food administration by such means 
will be the finest possible demonstration of the willing- 



438 WOODROW WILSON 

ness, the ability, and the efficiency of democracy, and of 
its justified reliance upon the freedom of individual ini- 
tiative. The last thing that any American could contem- 
plate with equanimity would be the introduction of any- 
thing resembling Prussian autocracy into the food con- 
trol in this country. 

"It is of vital interest and importance to every man 
who produces food and to every man who takes part in 
its distribution that these policies thus liberally admin- 
istered should succeed, and succeed altogether. It is 
only in that way that we can prove it to be absolutely 
unnecessary to resort to the rigorous and drastic meas- 
ures which have proved to be necessary in some of the 
European countries." 

In connection with this proclamation, the President 
appointed Herbert C. Hoover as food administrator on 
August 19th. Four days later, Dr. Harry A. Garfield 
was made fuel administrator. The President, in this 
manner, organized the whole country for war. 

Germany succeeded in diverting the Russian support 
two weeks before the United States entered the war. It 
was a heavy blow for the allies as it was estimated that 
Germany would be able to release more than a million 
soldiers for use in France. 

President Wilson was not discouraged by the de- 
flection of the Russian support. He was aware of the 
democratic spirit that was slowly gaining strength and 
he sympathized with the Russian people. The allied 
statesmen were inclined to upbraid their allies for failing 
at the critical moment but President Wilson immediately 
took steps to lend moral aid to the champions of freedom. 
With this idea in mind he addressed a note to the Russian 
Provisional government on May 26th, 1917, as follows : 

"In view of the approaching visit of the American 
delegation to Russia to express the deep friendship of the 
American people for the people of Russia and to discuss 
the best and most practical means of cooperation between 



WOODROW WILSON 439 

the two peoples in carrying the present struggle for the 
freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it 
seems opportune and appropriate that I should state 
again, in the light of this new partnership, the objects 
the United States has had in mind in entering the war. 
Those objects have been very much beclouded during the 
past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, 
and the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremen- 
dous, too significant for the whole human race to permit 
any misinterpretations or misunderstandings, however 
slight, to remain uncorrected for a moment. 

"The war has begun to go against Germany, and in 
their desperate desire to escape the inevitable ultimate 
defeat, those who are in authority in Germany are using 
every possible instrumentality, are making use even of 
the influence of groups and parties among their own sub- 
jects to whom they have never been just or fair or even 
tolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the 
sea which will preserve for them their influence at home 
and their power abroad, to the undoing of the very men 
they are using. 

"The position of America in this war is so clearly 
avowed that no man can be excused for mistaking it. 
She seeks no material profit or aggrandizement of any 
kind. She is fighting for no advantage or selfish object 
of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere 
from the aggressions of autocratic force. The ruling 
classes in Germany have begun of late to profess a like 
liberality and justice of purpose, but only to preserve 
the power they have set up in Germany and the selfish 
advantages which they have wrongly gained for them- 
selves and their private projects of power all the way 
from Berlin to Bagdad and beyond. Government after 
Government has by their influence, without open con- 
quest of its territory, been linked together in a net of 
intrigue directed against nothing less than the peace and 
liberty of the world. The meshes of that intrigue must 



440 WOODROW WILSON 

be broken, but cannot be broken unless wrongs already- 
done are undone ; and adequate measures must be taken 
to prevent it from ever being rewoven or repaired. 

"Of course, the Imperial Government and those 
whom it is using for their own undoing are seeking to 
obtain pledges that the war will end in the restoration 
of the status quo ante. It was the status quo ante out of 
which this iniquitous war issued forth, the power of the 
Imperial German Government within the Empire and its 
widespread domination and influence outside of that 
Empire. That status must be altered in such fashion as 
to prevent any such hideous thing from ever happening 
again. 

"We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, 
and the undictated development of all peoples, and every 
feature of the settlement that concludes this war must be 
conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must 
first be righted, and then adequate safeguards must be 
created to prevent their being committed again. We 
ought not to consider remedies merely because they have 
a pleasing and sonorous sound. Practical questions can 
be settled only by practical means. Phrases will not ac- 
complish the result. Effective readjustments will; and 
whatever readjustments are necessary must be made. 

1 ' But they must follow a principle, and that principle 
is plain. No people must be forced under sovereignty 
under which it does not wish to live. No territory must 
change hands except for the purpose of securing those 
who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. No indem- 
nities must be insisted on except those that constitute 
payments for manifest wrongs done. No readjustments 
of power must be made except such as will tend to secure 
the future peace of the world and the future welfare and 
happiness of its peoples. 

"And then the free peoples of the world must draw 
together in some common covenant, some genuine and 
practical cooperation that will in effect combine their 



WOODROW WILSON 441 

force to secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations 
with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must no 
longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a 
structure of force and reality. The nations must realize 
their common life and effect a workable partnership to 
secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and 
self -pleasing power. 

''For these things we can afford to pour out blood 
and treasure. For these are the things we have always 
professed to desire, and unless we pour out blood and 
treasure now and succeed, we may never be able to unite 
or show conquering force again in the great cause of 
human liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. 
If the forces of autocracy can divide us they will overcome 
us ; if we stand together, victory is certain and the liberty 
which victory will secure. We can afford then to be gen- 
erous, but we cannot afford then or now to be weak or 
omit any single guarantee of justice and security. ' ' 

With the entry of the United States into the war it 
became apparent that Germany had treated this coun- 
try as an enemy since the beginning of the world conflict. 
The President and the American people were loath to 
believe that the Imperial Government had deliberately 
violated the neutrality of the United States but the facts 
were plain. 

Activities of this sort had led to the dismissal of 
Count Dumba, the Austrian ambassador, a year after the 
war began and several German representatives also were 
sent home. It was all that could be done under the cir- 
cumstances, but with America at war it was another 
matter. 

President Wilson denounced the activities of the Ger- 
man agents in an address in Washington on Flag Day, 
June 14, 1917, in which he said : 

"Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the 
intrigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do 
not hesitate to use any agency that promises to effect 



442 WOODROW WILSON 

their purpose, the deceit of the nations? Their present 
particular aim is to deceive all those who throughout the 
world stand for the rights of peoples and the self-govern- 
ment of nations ; for they see what immense strength the 
forces of justice and of liberalism are gathering out of 
this war. They are employing liberals in their enter- 
prise. They are using men, in Germany and without, as 
their spokesmen whom they have hitherto c^spised and 
oppressed, using them for their own destruction — social- 
ists, the leaders of labor, the thinkers they have hitherto^ 
sought to silence. Let them once succeed and these men, 
now their tools, will be ground to powder beneath the 
weight of the great military empire they will have set up ; 
the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off from all suc- 
cor or cooperation in western Europe and a counter revo- 
lution fostered and supported ; Germany herself will lose 
her chance of freedom ; and all Europe will arm for the 
next, the final struggle. 

"The sinister intrigue is being no less actively con- 
ducted in this country than in Eussia and in every country 
in Europe to which the agents and dupes of the Imperial 
German Government can get access. That government 
has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They 
have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is 
opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim the 
liberal purposes of their masters ; declare this a foreign 
war which can touch America with no danger to either 
her lands or her institutions ; set England at the centre of 
the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic 
dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient 
tradition of isolation in the politics of the nations ; and 
seek to undermine the government with false professions 
of loyalty to its principles. 

1 ' But they will make no headway. The false betray 
themselves always in every accent. It is only friends and 
partisans of the German Government whom we have al- 
ready identified who utter these thinly disguised loyalties. 



WOODROW WILSON 443 

The facts are patent to all the world, and nowhere are 
they more plainly seen than in the United States, where 
we are accustomed to deal with facts and not with soph- 
istries ; and the great fact that stands out above all the 
rest is that this is a People's War, a war for freedom 
and justice and self-government amongst all the nations 
of the world, a war to make the world safe for the peoples 
who live upon it and have made it their own, the German 
peoples themselves included; and that with us rests the 
choice to break through all these hypocrisies and patent 
cheats and masks of brute force and help set the world 
free, or else stand aside and let it be dominated a long 
age through by sheer weight of arms and the arbitrary 
choices of self-constituted masters, by the nation which 
can maintain the biggest armies and the most irresistible 
armaments — a power to which the world has afforded no 
parallel and in the face of which political freedom must 
wither and perish. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXVI 
THE VOICE OF THE ALLIES. 

In August, 1917, Pope Benedict addressed a note to 
the warring powers asking for the peace aims of each. 
King Albert of Belgium replied and practically directed 
the pope to look to President Wilson for the aims of the 
allies. His action was an indication of the regard in 
which the President was held by the allied leaders. The 
President's note to the pope was sent on August 27th, 
1917, as follows: 

4 'In acknowledgment of the communication of your 
Holiness to the belligerent peoples, dated Aug. 1, 1917, 
the President of the United States requests me to trans- 
mit the following reply: 

' i Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened 
by this terrible war must be touched by this moving ap- 
peal of his Holiness the Pope, must feel the dignity and 
force of the humane and generous motives which 
prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take 
the path of peace he so persuasively points out. But it 
would be folly to take it if it does not in fact lead to the 
goal he proposes. Our response must be based upon the 
stern facts, and upon nothing else. It is not a mere cessa- 
tion of arms he desires ; it is a stable and enduring peace. 
This agony must not be gone through with again, and it 
must be a matter of very sober judgment what will insure 
us against it. 

"His Holiness in substance proposes that we return 
to the status quo ante-bellum and that then there be a 
general condonation, disarmament, and a concert of na- 
tions based upon an acceptance of the principle of arbi- 
tration; that by a similar concert freedom of the seas 

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be established; and that the territorial claims of France 
and Italy, the perplexing problems of the Balkan States, 
and the restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory 
adjustments as may be possible in the new temper of 
such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations 
of the peoples whose political fortunes and affiliations 
will be involved. 

' ' It is manifest that no part of this program can be 
successfully carried out unless the restitution of the status 
quo ante furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. 
The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of 
the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast 
military establishment, controlled by an irresponsible 
Government, which, having secretly planned to dominate 
the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard 
either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long- 
established practices and long-cherished principles of in- 
ternational action and honor ; which chose its own time for 
the war ; delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly ; stopped 
at no barrier, either of law or of mercy; swept a whole 
continent within the tide of blood — not the blood of sol- 
diers only, but the blood of innocent women and children 
also and of the helpless poor ; and now stands balked, but 
not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world. 

"This power is not the German people. It is the 
ruthless master of the German people. It is no business 
of ours how that great people came under its control or 
submitted with temporary zest to the domination of its 
purpose ; but it is our business to see to it that the history 
of the rest of the world is no longer left to its handling. 

1 ' To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the 
plan proposed by his Holiness the Pope would, so far as 
we can see, involve a recuperation of its strength and a 
renewal of its policy ; would make it necessary to create a 
permanent hostile combination of nations against the 
German people, who are its instruments ; and would result 
in abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the 



450 WOODROW WILSON 

manifold subtle interference, and the certain counter-rev- 
lution which would be attempted by all the malign in- 
fluences to which the German Government has of late ac- 
customed the world. 

"Can peace be based upon a restitution of its power 
or upon any word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of 
settlement and accommodation? 

"Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if 
they never saw before, that no peace can rest securely 
upon political or economic restrictions meant to benefit 
some nations and cripple or embarrass others, upon vin- 
dictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or delib- 
erate injury. The American people have suffered intol- 
erable wrongs at the hands of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment, but they desire no reprisal upon the German 
people, who have themselves suffered all things in this 
war, which they did not choose. They believe that peace 
should rest upon the rights of peoples, not the rights of 
Governments — the rights of peoples, great or small, weak 
or powerful — their equal right to freedom and security 
and self-government and to a participation upon fair 
terms in the economic opportunities of the world, the 
German people, of course, included, if they will accept 
equality and not seek domination. 

* ' The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this : 
Is it based upon the faith of all the people involved, or 
merely upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing Gov- 
ernment, on the one hand, and of a group of free peoples, 
on the other! This is a test which goes to the root of the 
matter ; and it is the test which must be applied. 

"The purposes of the United States in this war are 
known to the whole world — to every people to whom the 
truth has been permitted to come. They do not need to 
be stated again. We seek no material advantage of any 
kind. "We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this 
war by the furious and brutal power of the Imperial Ger- 
man Government ought to be repaired, but not at the 



WOODROW WILSON 451 

expense of the sovereignty of any people — rather a vindi- 
cation of the sovereignty both of those that are weak and 
of those that are strong. Punitive damages, the dismem- 
berment of empires, the establishment of selfish and ex- 
clusive economic leagues, we deem inexpedient, and in 
the end worse than futile, no proper basis for a peace of 
any kind, least of all for an enduring peace. That must 
be based upon justice and fairness and the common rights 
of mankind. 

"We cannot take the word of the present rulers of 
Germany as a guarantee of anything that is to endure 
unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence 
of the will and purpose of the German people themselves 
as the other peoples of the world would be justified in ac- 
cepting. Without such guarantees treaties of settlement, 
agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitra- 
tion in the place of force, territorial adjustments, recon- 
stitutions of small nations, if made with the German Gov- 
ernment, no man, no nation, could now depend on. 

"We must await some new evidence of the purposes 
of the great peoples of the Central Powers. God grant it 
may be given soon and in a way to restore the confidence 
of all peoples everywhere in the faith of nations and the 
possibility of a covenanted peace." 

The note met with approval from all the allied and 
associated powers, and President Wilson from that time 
became the authorized spokesman of the nations fighting 
for Democracy. 

All during the fall President Wilson was occupied 
with the innumerable details of government, as well as 
the weight of the responsibilities which had been placed 
on him by Congress. He possessed more power than any 
man in the history of the world. 

In November word came from Europe that Austrian- 
Hungarian troops had taken position in the German 
trenches. This meant that they would oppose American 
soldiers when the time came for the latter to go into the 



452 WOODROW WILSON 

allied line. It was therefore necessary for this country 
to declare war on the dual monarchy. 

President Wilson voiced the request in his fifth an- 
nual message, which was delivered at a joint session of 
Congress on December 4th. It follows : 

" Gentlemen of the Congress: Eight months have 
elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. 
They have been months crowded with events of immense 
and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to 
retail or even to summarize those events. The practical 
particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid 
before you in the reports of the executive departments. I 
shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast 
affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of 
accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view. 

"I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. 
The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by 
the sinister masters of Germany have long since become 
too grossly obvious and odious to every true American 
to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider 
again and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and 
the measures by which we mean to attain them; for the 
purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and our 
action must move straight toward definite ends. Our 
object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not 
slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. 
But it is worth while asking and answering the question, 
When shall we consider the war won? 

"From one point of view it is not necessary to broach 
this fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the Ameri- 
can people know what the war is about and what sort of 
an outcome they will regard as a realization of their pur- 
pose in it. As a Nation we are united in spirit and inten- 
tion. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I 
hear the voices of dissent — who does not? I hear the 
criticism and the clamor of the noisily' thoughtless and 
troublesome. I also see men here and there fling them- 



WOODROW WILSON 453 

selves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomita- 
ble power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who 
understand neither its nature nor the way in which we 
may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. 
But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. They 
do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be 
left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten. 

' ' But from another point of view I believe that it is 
necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action 
consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play 
in the settlement of its searching issues. We are the 
spokesmen of the American people and they have a right 
to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace 
by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the 
sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impos- 
sible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs 
with theirs and what action we propose. They are im- 
patient with those who desire peace by any sort of com- 
promise — deeply and indignantly impatient — but they 
will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain 
to them what our objectives are and what we are planning 
for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms. 

"I believe that I speak for them when I say two 
things: First, that this intolerable Thing of which the 
masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this 
menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see 
so clearly as the German power, a Thing without con- 
science or honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must 
be crushed, and if it be not utterly brought to an end, at 
least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the na- 
tions ; and, second, that when this Thing and its power are 
indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss 
peace — when the German people have spokesmen whose 
word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready 
in the name of their people to accept the common judg- 
ment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the 
bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world — we 



454 WOODROW WILSON 

shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, 
and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will 
be. It will be full, impartial justice — justice done at every 
point and to every nation that the final settlement must 
affect our enemies as well as our friends. 

" You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are 
in the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, 
more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men 
everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in 
vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or peoples 
shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible 
rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and 
abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been ex- 
pressed in the formula 'No annexations, no contributions, 
no punitive indemnities. ' Just because this crude formula 
expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain 
men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the 
masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia 
astray — and the people of every other country their 
agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might 
be brought about before autocracy has been taught its 
final and convincing lesson, and the people of the world 
put in control of their own destinies. 

"But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a 
just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made 
of it. It ought to be brought under the patronage of its 
real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first 
be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leader- 
ship in the modern world. It is impossible to apply any 
standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked 
and undefeated as the present masters of Germany com- 
mand. Not until that has been done can Eight be set up as 
arbiter and peacemaker among the nations. But when 
that has been clone — as, God willing, it assuredly will be — 
we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and 
this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be 
free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the ex- 



WOODROW WILSON 455 

elusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part 
of the victors. 

"Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present 
and immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall 
turn us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every 
power and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, 
or materials, is being devoted and will continue to be 
devoted to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who 
desire to bring peace about before that purpose is 
achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We 
will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won 
only when the German people say to us, through properly 
accredited representatives, that they are ready to agree 
to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of 
the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a 
wrong to Belgium which must be repaired. They have 
established a power over other lands and peoples than 
their own — over the great Empire of Austria-Hungary, 
over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and within 
Asia — which must be relinquished. 

"Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowl- 
edge, by enterprise, we did not grudge or oppose, but ad- 
mired, rather. She had built up for herself a real empire 
of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. 
We were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, 
science, and commerce that were involved for us in her 
success and stand or fall as we had or did not have the 
brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the 
moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of 
peace she threw them away to establish in their stead 
what the world will no longer permit to be established, 
military and political domination by arms by which to 
oust where she could not excel the rivals she most feared 
and hated. The peace we make must remedy that wrong. 
It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of 
Belgium and northern France from the Prussian conquest 
and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliver the 



456 - WOODROW WILSON 

peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, 
and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, 
from the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian 
military and commercial autocracy. 

"We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do 
not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro- 
Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours what they do 
with their own life, either industrially or politically. We 
do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. 
We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their 
own hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope 
to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for 
the people of the Turkish Empire the right and oppor- 
tunity to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes 
secure against oppression or injustice and from the dicta- 
tion of foreign courts or parties. 

"And our attitude and purpose with regard to Ger- 
many herself are of a like kind. We intend no wrong 
against the German Empire, no interference with her in- 
ternal affairs. We should deem either the one or the 
other absolutely unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the 
principles we have professed to live by and to hold most 
sacred throughout our life as a nation. 

"The people of Germany are being told by the men 
whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their 
masters that they are fighting for the very life and exist- 
ence of their Empire, a war of desperate self-defense 
against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more 
grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost 
openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them 
of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their eman- 
cipation from fear, along with our own — from the fear as 
well as from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or 
rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threat- 
ening the existence or the independence or the peaceful 
enterprise of the German Empire. 

1 i The worst that can happen to the detriment of the 



WOODROW WILSON 457 

German people is this, that if they should still, after the 
war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious 
and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of 
the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of 
the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit 
them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth 
guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be 
a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of gov- 
ernments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward 
circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic 
intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other 
partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no ag- 
gression in that ; and such a situation, inevitable because 
of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or 
later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly 
set in. 

"The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in 
this war will have to be righted. That of course. But 
they can not and must not be righted by the commission of 
similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The 
world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs 
as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must 
by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is 
everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues 
involved. No representative of any self -governed nation 
will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants 
of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the 
Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people 
here and everywhere throughout the world, the people 
who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and un- 
sophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air all 
governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. 
It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all 
policies must be conceived and executed in this midday 
hour of the world's life. German rulers have been able 
to upset the peace of the world only because the German 
people were not suffered under, their tutelage to share the 



458 WOODROW WILSON 

comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in 
thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no 
opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of 
conduct for those who exercised authority over them. 
But the congress that concludes this war will feel the full 
strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and con- 
sciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run 
with those tides. 

"All these things have been true from the very begin- 
ning of this stupendous war ; and I can not help thinking 
that if they had been made plain at the very outset the 
sympathy and enthusiasm of the Eussian people might 
have been once for all enlisted on the side of the allies, 
suspicion and distrust swept away, and a real and lasting 
union of purpose effected. Had they believed these things 
at the very moment of their revolution and had they been 
confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have 
recently marked the progress of their affairs toward an 
ordered and stable government of free men might have 
been avoided. The Eussian people have been poisoned 
by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German 
people in the dark, and the poison has been administered 
by the very same hands. The only possible antidote is the 
truth. It can not be uttered too plainly or too often. 

"From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed 
to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to 
add these specific interpretations to what I took the lib- 
erty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance 
into the war has not altered our attitude toward the set- 
tlement that must come when it is over. When I said in 
January that the nations of the world were entitled not 
only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and 
unmolested access to those pathways, I was thinking, and 
I am thinking now, not of the smaller and weaker nations 
alone, which need our countenance and support, but also 
of the great and powerful nations, and of our present 
enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I 



WOODROW WILSON 459 

was thinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, 
among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Jus- 
tice and equality of right can be had only at a great price. 
We are seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations 
for the peace of the world and must seek them candidly 
and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be the 
expedient. 

"What shall we do, then, to push this great war of 
freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion? We 
must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to 
success, and we must make every adjustment of law that 
will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity 
and force as a fighting unit. 

"One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our 
way is that we are at war with Germany, but not with 
her allies. I therefore very earnestly recommend that the 
Congress immediately declare the United States in a 
state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange 
to you that this should be the conclusion of the argument 
I have just addressed to you ? It is not. It is, in fact, the 
inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is 
for the time being not her own mistress, but simply the 
vassal of the German Government. We must face the 
facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in 
this stern business. The Government of Austria-Hungary 
is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the 
wishes and feelings of its own peoples, but as the instru- 
ment of another nation. We must meet its force with our 
own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war 
can be successfully conducted in no other way. The same 
logic would lead also to a declaration of war against 
Turkey and Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Ger- 
many. But they are mere tools, and do not yet stand in 
the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go 
wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems 
to me that we should go only where immediate and prac- 
tical considerations lead us and not heed any others. 



460 WOODROW WILSON 

' ' The financial and military measures which must be 
adopted will suggest themselves as the war and its under- 
takings develop, but I will take the liberty of proposing to 
you certain other acts of legislation which seem to me to 
be needed for the support of the war and for the release 
of our whole force and energy. 

"It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars 
the legislation of the last session with regard to alien 
enemies; and also necessary, I believe, to create a very 
definite and particular control over the entrance and 
departure of all persons into and from the United States. 

"Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal 
offense every willful violation of the presidential proc- 
lamations relating to alien enemies promulgated under 
section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and providing appro- 
priate punishment ; and women as well as men should be 
included under the terms of the acts placing restraints 
upon alien enemies. It is likely that as time goes on many 
alien enemies will be willing to be fed and housed at the 
expense of the Government in the detention camps, and it 
would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested 
to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries and 
other similar institutions where they could be made to 
work as other criminals do. 

"Recent experience has convinced me that the Con- 
gress must go further in authorizing the Government to 
set limits to prices. The law of supply and demand, I 
am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unre- 
strained selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteer- 
ing in several branches of industry, it still runs impudent- 
ly rampant in others. The farmers, for example, com- 
plain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation 
of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are 
placed upon the prices of most of the things they must 
themselves purchase ; and similar inequities obtain on all 
sides. 

"It is imperatively necessary that the consideration 



WOODROW WILSON 461 

of the full use of the water power of the country, and also 
the consideration of the systematic and yet economical 
development of such of the natural resources of the coun- 
try as are still under the control of the Federal Govern- 
ment, should be immediately resumed and affirmatively 
and constructively dealt with at the earliest possible 
moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily 
becoming more obvious. 

1 'The legislation proposed at the last session with 
regard to regulated combinations among our exporters, 
in order to provide for our foreign trade a more effective 
organization and method of cooperation, ought by all 
means to be completed at this session. 

" And I beg that the members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives will permit me to express the opinion that it 
will be impossible to deal in any but a very wasteful and 
extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations 
of the public moneys which must continue to be made, if 
the war is to be properly sustained, unless the House will 
consent to return to its former practice of initiating and 
preparing all appropriation bills through a single com- 
mittee, in order that responsibility may be centered, ex- 
penditures standardized and made uniform, and waste 
and duplication as much as possible avoided. 

"Additional legislation may also become necessary 
before the present Congress again adjourns in order to 
effect the most efficient co-ordination and operation of the 
railway and other transportation systems of the country ; 
but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call 
the attention of the Congress upon another occasion. 

"If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done 
for the more effective conduct of the war, your own coun- 
sels will supply the omission. What I am perfectly clear 
about is that in the present session of the Congress our 
whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the 
vigorous, rapid, and successful prosecution of the great 
task of winning the war. 



462 WOODROW WILSON 

"We can do this with all the greater zeal and en- 
thusiasm because we know that for us this is a war of high 
principle, debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or 
spoliation ; because we know, and all the world knows, that 
we have been forced into it to save the very institutions 
we live under from corruption and destruction. The pur- 
poses of the Central Powers strike straight at the very 
heart of everything we believe in ; their methods of war- 
fare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly 
honor ; their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and 
spirit of many of our people; their sinister and secret 
diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away 
from us and disrupt the Union of the States. Our safety 
would be at an end, our honor forever sullied and brought 
into contempt were we to permit their triumph. They are 
striking at the very existence of democracy and liberty. 

"It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested 
purpose, in which all the free peoples of the world are 
banded together for the vindication of right, a war for the 
preservation of our nation and of all that it has held dear 
of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly 
constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is 
righteous and if irreproachable intention, for our foes as 
well as for our friends. The cause being just and holy, the 
settlement must be of like motive and quality. For this 
we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy of 
our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for 
this cause will we battle until the last gun is fired. 

"I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the 
time when it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order 
that all the world may know that even in the heat and 
ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of 
carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten 
any ideal or principle for which the name of America has 
been held in honor among the nations and for which it has 
been our glory to contend in the great generations that 
went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. 



WOODROW WILSON 463 

The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. 
The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show 
them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the 
clear heights of His own justice and mercy." 

Congress at once acceded to the request of the Presi- 
dent and on December 7th a joint resolution was adopted 
in both Senate and House, naming the Austrian-Hun- 
garian government as an enemy of the United States and 
calling for prosecution of the war with increased vigor. 
There was only one dissenting vote. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
THE FOURTEEN POINTS. 

The whole world was now looking to President Wil- 
son for an expression of the war aims of the United 
States. He appeared before Congress on January 8, 1918, 
and addressed the legislators, as follows : 

' ' Gentlemen of the Congress : Once more, as repeat- 
edly before, the spokesmen of the Central Empires have 
indicated their desire to discuss the objects of the war 
and the possible basis of a general peace. Parleys have 
been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Russian repre- 
sentatives and representatives of the Central Powers to 
which the attention of all the belligerents has been invited 
for the purpose of ascertaining whether it may be possi- 
ble to extend these parleys into a general conference with 
regard to terms of peace and settlement. 

"The Russian representatives presented not only a 
perfectly definite statement of the principles upon which 
they would be willing to conclude peace but also an equally 
definite program of the concrete application of those prin- 
ciples. The representatives of the Central Powers, on 
their part, presented an outline of settlement which, if 
much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal interpre- 
tation until their specific program of practical terms was 
added. That program proposed no concessions at all 
either to the sovereignty of Russia or to the preferences 
of the populations with whose fortunes it dealt, but meant, 
in a word, that the Central Empires were to keep every 
foot of territory their armed forces had occupied — every 
province, every city, every point of vantage — as a perma- 
nent addition to their territories and their power. 

"It is a reasonable conjecture that the general 

464 



WOODROW WILSON 466 

principles of settlement which they at first suggested 
originated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany 
and Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of 
their own people's thought and purpose, while the con- 
crete terms of actual settlement came from the military 
leaders who have no thought but to keep what they have 
got. The negotiations have been broken off. The Rus- 
sian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They 
cannot entertain such proposals of conquest and domina- 
tion. 

1 l The whole incident is full of significance. It is also 
full of perplexity. With whom are the Russian repre- 
sentatives dealing 1 ? For whom are the representatives of 
the Central Empires speaking? Are they speaking for 
the majorities of their respective parliaments or for the 
minority parties, that military and imperialistic minority 
which has so far dominated their whole policy and con- 
trolled the affairs of Turkey and pf the Balkan states 
which have felt obliged to become their associates in this 
war? 

"The Russian representatives have insisted, very 
justly, very wisely, and in the true spirit of modern 
democracy, that the conferences they have been holding 
with the Teutonic and Turkish statesmen should be held 
within open, not closed, doors, and all the world has been 
audience, as was desired. To whom have we been listen- 
ing, then? To those who speak the spirit and intention of 
the resolutions of the German Reichstag of the 9th of 
July last, the spirit and intention of the Liberal leaders 
and parties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy 
that spirit and intention and insist upon conquest and 
subjugation? Or are we listening, in fact, to both, un- 
reconciled and in open and hopeless contradiction? These 
are very serious and pregnant questions. Upon the 
answer to them depends the peace of the world. 

"But, whatever the results of the parleys at Brest- 
Litovsk, whatever the confusions of counsel and of pur- 



466 WOODROW WILSON 

pose in the utterances of the spokesmen of the Central 
Empires, they have again attempted to acquaint the world 
with their objects in the war and have again challenged 
their adversaries to say what their objects are and what 
sort of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. 
There is no good reason why that challenge should not be 
responded to, and responded to with the utmost candor. 
We did not wait for it. Not once, but again and again, we 
have laid our whole thought and purpose before the world, 
not in general terms only, but each time with sufficient 
definition to make it clear what sort of definite terms of 
settlement must necessarily spring out of them. Within 
the last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirable 
candor and in admirable spirit for the people and Govern- 
ment of Great Britain. 

" There is no confusion of counsel among the ad- 
versaries of the Central Powers, no uncertainty of prin- 
ciple, no vagueness of detail. The only secrecy of counsel, 
the only lack of fearless frankness, the only failure to 
make definite statement of the objects of the war, lies with 
Germany and her allies. The issues of life and death hang 
upon these definitions. No statesman who has the least 
conception of his responsibility ought for a moment to 
permit himself to continue this tragical and appalling out- 
pouring of blood and treasure unless he is sure beyond a 
peradventure that the objects of the vital sacrifice are 
part and parcel of the very life of Society and that the 
people for whom he speaks think them right and impera- 
tive as he does. 

''There is, moreover, a voice calling for these defini- 
tions of principle and of purpose which is, it seems to me, 
more thrilling and more compelling than any of the many 
moving voices with which the troubled air of the world is 
filled. It is the voice of the Russian people. They are 
prostrate and all but helpless, it would seem, before the 
grim power of Germany, which has hitherto known no 
relenting and no pity. Their power, apparently, is shat- 



WOODROW WILSON 467 

tered. And yet their soul is not subservient. They will 
not yield either in principle or in action. Their concep- 
tion of what is right, of what is humane and honorable for 
them to accept, has been stated with a frankness, a large- 
ness of view, a generosity of spirit, and a universal human 
sympathy which must challenge the admiration of every 
friend of mankind; and they have refused to compound 
their ideals or desert others that they themselves may be 
safe. 

1 ' They call to us to say what it is that we desire, in 
what, if in anything, our purpose and our spirit differ 
from theirs ; and I believe that the people of the United 
States would wish me to respond, with utter simplicity 
and frankness. Whether their present leaders believe it 
or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope that some way 
may be opened whereby we may be privileged to assist the 
people of Russia to attain their utmost hope of liberty and 
ordered peace. 

"It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of 
peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and 
that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret 
understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and 
aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret 
covenants entered into in the interest of particular gov- 
ernments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset 
the peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear 
to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not 
still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes 
it possible for every nation whose purposes are consistent 
with justice and the peace of the world to avow now or 
at any other time the objects it has in view. 

"We entered this war because violations of right had 
occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life 
of our own people impossible unless they were corrected 
and the world secure once for all against their recurrence. 

"What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing 
peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and 



468 WOODROW WILSON 

safe to live in ; and particularly that it be made safe for 
every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to 
live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured 
of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the 
world as against force and selfish aggression. 

"All the peoples of the world are in effect partners 
in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly 
that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to 
us. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our 
program ; and that program, the only possible program, 
as we see it, is this : 

"1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after 
which there shall be no private international understand- 
ings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always 
frankly and in the public view. 

"2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, 
outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, 
except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by 
international action for the enforcement of international 
covenants. 

"3. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic 
barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade 
conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace 
and associating themselves for its maintenance. 

"4. Adequate guarantees given and taken that na- 
tional armaments will be reduced to the lowest points con- 
sistent with domestic safety. 

"5. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial 
adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict ob- 
servance of the principle that in determining all such 
questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations 
concerned must have equal weight with the equitable 
claims of the government whose title is to be determined. 

"6. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such 
a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure 
the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of 
the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unem- 



"WCODROW WILSON 469 

barrassed opportunity for the independent determination 
of her own political development and national policy and 
assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free 
nations under institutions of her own choosing ; and, more 
than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she 
may need and may herself desire. The treatment ac- 
corded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come 
will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehen- 
sion of her needs as distinguished from their own inter- 
ests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. 

"7. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be 
evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the 
sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other 
free nations. No other single act will serve as this will 
serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws 
which they have themselves set and determined for the 
government of their relations with one another. Without 
this healing act the whole structure and validity of inter- 
national law is forever impaired. 

"8. All French territory should be freed and the in- 
vaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France 
by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which 
has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, 
should be righted, in order that peace may once more be 
made secure in the interest of all. 

"9. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should 
be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. 
"10. The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place 
among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and as- 
sured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of 
autonomous development. 

"11. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be 
evacuated ; occupied territories restored ; Serbia accorded 
free and secure access to the sea ; and the relations of the 
several Balkan states to one another determined by 
friendly counsel along historically established lines of 
allegiance and nationality ; and international guarantees 



470 WOODROW WILSON 

of the political and economic independence and territo- 
rial integrity of the several Balkan states should be en- 
tered into. 

"12. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman 
Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the 
other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule 
should be assured an undoubted security of life and an 
absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous de- 
velopment, and the Dardanelles should be permanently 
opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of 
all nations under international guarantees. 

"13. An independent Polish state should be erected 
which should include the territories inhabited by indis- 
putably Polish populations, which should be assured a 
free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and 
economic independence and territorial integrity should be 
guaranteed by international covenant. 

"14. A general association of nations must be 
formed under specific covenants for the purpose of 
affording mutual guarantees of political independence 
and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. 

"In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong 
and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate 
partners of all the governments and peoples associated 
together against the imperialists. We cannot be sep- 
arated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand to- 
gether until the end. 

"For such arrangements and covenants we are will- 
ing to fight and to continue to fight until they are 
achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail 
and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured 
only by removing the chief provocations to war, which 
this program does remove. 

"We have no jealousy of German greatness, and 
there is nothing in this program that impairs it. We 
grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or 
of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very 



WOODROW WILSON 471 

bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her 
or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. 
We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with 
hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate 
herself with us and the other peace-loving nations of the 
world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. 

"We wish her only to accept a place of equality 
among the peoples of the world, — the new world in which 
we now live, — instead of a place of mastery. 

' i Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alter- 
ation or modification of her institutions. But it is neces- 
sary, we must frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary 
to any intelligent dealings with her on our part, that we 
should know whom her spokesmen speak for when they 
speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority or for the 
military party and the men whose creed is imperial 
domination. 

"We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete 
to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident 
principle runs through the whole program I have out- 
lined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and 
nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of 
liberty and safety with one another, whether they be 
strong or weak. 

"Unless this principle be made its foundation no 
part of the structure of international justice can stand. 
The people of the United States could act upon no other 
principle; and to the vindication of this principle they 
are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and every- 
thing they possess. The moral climax of this, the culmin- 
ating and final war for human liberty has come, and they 
are ready to put their own strength, their own highest 
purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test." 

This was the birth of the famous Fourteen Points 
which were adopted by the allied statesmen as a basis 
for their peace utterances. They created a great amount 
of excitement in Germany and popular demand was for 



472 WOODROW "WILSON 

a reply from the German government. It was not long 
in forthcoming. On January 24th, Count von Hertling, 
the German chancellor, replied to President Wilson in 
an address to the reichstag in which he said : 

''Gentlemen: You have acquainted yourselves with 
the speech of Premier Lloyd George and the proposals 
of President Wilson. We now must ask ourselves 
whether these speeches and proposals breathe a real and 
earnest wish for peace. They contain certain principles 
for a general world peace to which we also assent and 
which might form the starting point and aid negotiations. 

"When, however, concrete questions came into the 
question — points which, for the Teutonic allies, are of 
decisive importance — their peace will is less observable. 
Our enemies do not desire to destroy Germany, but they 
cast covetous eyes on parts of our allies' lands. They 
speak with respect of Germany's position, but their con- 
ception, ever afresh, finds expression as if we were the 
guilty who must do penance and promise improvement. 

"Thus speaks the victor to the vanquished; he who 
interprets all our former expressions of a readiness for 
peace as merely a sign of weakness. 

' ' The leaders of the entente must first renounce this 
standpoint and this deception. In order to facilitate this, 
I would like to recall what the position really is. They 
may take it from me that our military position was never 
so favorable as it now is. Our highly gifted army leaders 
face the future with undiminished confidence in victory. 
Throughout the whole army, in the officers and the men, 
lives unbroken the joy of battle. 

"I now come to President Wilson. Here, too, I 
recognize that the tone appears to have changed. The 
unanimous rejection of Mr. Wilson's attempt, in reply 
to the pope's note, to sow discord between the German 
government and the German people has had its effect. 

"This unanimous rejection might of itself lead Mr. 
Wilson on the right path. A beginning to that end has 



WOODROW WILSON 473 

perhaps been made, for now there is at any rate no 
longer talk about oppression of the German people by 
an autocratic government, and the former attacks on 
the house of Hohenzollern have not been repeated. 

1 'I shall not enlarge upon the distorted representa- 
tion of German policy which is contained in Mr. Wilson's 
message, but will deal in detail with the points which Mr. 
Wilson lays down there, not less than fourteen points, in 
which he formulates his peace program, and I pray your 
indulgence in dealing with these as briefly as possible. 

"The first point is the demand that there shall be 
no more secret international agreements. History shows 
it is we above all others who would be able to agree to the 
publicity of diplomatic documents. I recall that our de- 
fensive alliance with Austria-Hungary was known to the 
whole world from 1888, while the offensive agreement of 
the enemy states first saw the light of publicity during 
the war through the revelations of the secret Russian 
archives. 

"In his second point Mr. Wilson demands freedom of 
shipping on the seas in war and peace. This also is de- 
manded by Germany as the first and one of the most im- 
portant requirements for the future. Therefore there is 
here no difference of opinion. 

"It would, however, be highly important for the free- 
dom of shipping in future if strongly fortified naval bases 
on important international routes, such as England has 
at Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Hongkong, the Falkland 
islands, and many other places, were removed. 

"Point 3 — We, too, are in thorough accord with 
the removal of economic barriers which interfere with 
trade in superfluous manner. We, too, condemn economic 
war, which would inevitably bear within it causes of 
future warlike complications. 

"Point 4 — Limitation of armaments: As already 
declared by us, the idea of limitation of armaments is 
entirely discussable. The financial position of all 



474 WOODROW WILSON 

European states after the war might mcst effectively 
promote a satisfactory solution. It is therefore clear 
that an understanding might be reached without difficulty 
on the first four points of Mr. Wilson's program. 

"I now come to the fifth point — settlement of all 
colonial claims and disputes. Practical realization of 
Mr. Wilson's principles in the realm of reality will en- 
counter some difficulties in any case. I believe that for 
the present it may be left for England, which has the 
greatest colonial empire, to make what she will of this 
proposal of her ally. This point of the program also will 
have to be discussed in due time, on the reconstitution of 
the world's colonial possessions, which we also demand 
absolutely. 

"Point 6 — Evacuation of Russian territory: Now 
that the entente has refused within the period agreed 
upon by Russia and the quadruple alliance to join in the 
negotiations, I must, in the name of the latter, decline to 
allow any subsequent interference. 

"We are dealing here with questions which concern 
only Russia and the four allied powers. I adhere to the 
hope that with recognition of self-determination for the 
peoples on the western frontier of the former Russian 
empire good relations will be established, both with these 
peoples and with the rest of Russia, for whom we^ wish 
most earnestly a return of order, peace and conditions 
guaranteeing the welfare of the country. 

"Point 7 — Belgium: My predecessors in office re- 
peatedly declared that at no time did the annexation of 
Belgium to Germany form a point in the program of 
German policy. The Belgian question belongs to those 
questions the details of which are to be settled by negotia- 
tions at the peace conference. I must adhere to the 
standpoint hitherto always adopted and refuse the re- 
moval in advance of the Belgian affair from the entire 
discussion. 

"Point 8 — The occupied parts of France are a valu- 



WOODROW WILSON 475 

able pawn in our hands. Here, too, forcible annexation 
forms no part of the official German policy. The condi- 
tions and methods of procedure of the evacuation, which 
must take account of Germany's vital interests, are to 
be agreed upon between Germany and France. 

"I can only again expressly accentuate the fact that 
there can never be a question of dismemberment of im- 
perial territory. Under no fine phrases of any kind shall 
we permit the enemy again to take from us territory of 
the empire which with ever increasing intimacy has 
linked itself to Germanism, which has in highly gratify- 
ing manner ever and increasingly developed in an eco- 
nomic respect, and of whose people more than 87 per cent 
speak the German mother tongue. 

"The questions dealt with by Mr. Wilson under 
points 9, 10, and 11 touch both the Italian frontier ques- 
tion and questions of the future development of the 
Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the future of the 
Balkan states ; questions in which, for the greater part, 
the interests of our ally, Austria-Hungary, preponderate. 

"Where German interests are concerned we shall 
defend them most energetically. But I may leave the 
answer to Mr. Wilson's proposals on these points in the 
first place to the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister. 
Close contact with the allied dual monarchy forms the 
kernel of our present policy and must be the guiding line 
in the future. 

"Loyal comradeship in arms, which has stood the 
test so brilliantly in war time, must continue to have its 
effect in peace. We shall thus on our part do everything 
for the attainment of peace by Austria-Hungary which 
takes into account her just claims. 

1 ' The matters touched upon by Mr. Wilson in point 
12 concern our loyal, brave ally, Turkey. I must in no 
wise forestall her statesmen in their attitude. The in- 
tegrity of Turkey and the safeguarding of her capital, 
which is connected closely with the question of the straits, 



476 WOODROW WILSON 

are important and vital interests of the German empire 
only. ' ' 

Count Czernin's reply to the President was made 
on the same day. It was along the same line as that of 
Count von Hertling. Neither was satisfactory to Presi- 
dent Wilson who addressed his reply to congress on Feb- 
ruary 11th. His speech follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Congress: "On the eighth of 
January I had the honor of addressing you on the objects 
of the war as our people conceive them. The Prime 
Minister of Great Britain had spoken in similar terms 
on the fifth of January. To these addresses the German 
Chancellor replied on the twenty-fourth and Count 
Czernin, for Austria, on the same day. It is gratifying 
to have our desire so promptly realized that all exchanges 
of view on this great matter should be made in the hearing 
of all the world. 

"Count Czernin's reply, which is directed chiefly to 
my own address of the eighth of January, is uttered in a 
very friendly tone. He finds in my statement a sufficiently 
encouraging approach to the views of his own Govern- 
ment to justify him in believing that it furnishes a basis 
for a more detailed discussion of purposes by the two 
Governments. He is represented to have intimated that 
the views he was expressing had been communicated to 
me beforehand and that I was aware of them at the time 
he was uttering them ; but in this I am sure he was mis- 
understood. I had received no intimation of what he 
intended to say. There was, of course, no reason why he 
should communicate privately with me. I am quite con- 
tent to be one of his public audience. 

"Count von Hertling 's reply is, I must say, very 
vague and very confusing. It is full of equivocal phrases 
and leads it is not clear where. But it is certainly in a 
very different tone from that of Count Czernin, and 
apparently of an opposite purpose. It confirms, I am 
sorry to say, rather than removes, the unfortunate im- 



WOODROW WILSON 477 

pression made by what we had learned of the conferences 
at Brest-Litovsk. His discussion and acceptance of our 
general principles lead him to no practical conclusions. 
He refuses to apply them to the substantive items which 
must constitute the body of any final settlement. He is 
jealous of international action and of international coun- 
sel. He accepts, he says, the principle of public diplo- 
macy, but he appears to insist that it be confined, at any 
rate in this case, to generalities and that the several par- 
ticular questions of territory and sovereignty, the several 
questions upon whose settlement must depend the ac- 
ceptance of peace by the twenty-three states now engaged 
in the war, must be discussed and settled, not in general 
council, but severally by the nations most immediately 
concerned by interest or neighborhood. He agrees that 
the seas should be free, but looks askance at any limita- 
tion to that freedom by international action in the interest 
of the common order. He would without reserve be glad 
to see economic barriers removed between nation and 
nation, for that could in no way impede the ambitions of 
the military party with whom he seems constrained to 
keep on terms. Neither does he raise objection to a 
limitation of armaments. That matter will be settled of 
itself, he thinks, by the economic conditions which must 
follow the war. But the German colonies, he demands, 
must be returned without debate. He w^ill discuss with 
no one but the representatives of Russia what disposition 
shall be made of the people and the lands of the Baltic 
provinces; with no one but the Government of France 
the 'conditions' under which French territory shall be 
evacuated ; and only with Austria what shall be done with 
Poland. In the determination of all questions affecting 
the Balkan states he defers, as I understand him, to 
Austria and Turkey ; and with regard to the agreements 
to be entered into concerning the non-Turkish peoples 
of the present Ottoman Empire, to the Turkish authori- 
ties themselves. After a settlement all around, affected 



478 WOODROW WILSON 

in this fashion, by individual barter and concession, he 
would have no objection, if I correctly interpret his state- 
ment, to a league of nations which would undertake to 
hold the new balance of power steady against external 
disturbance. 

1 'It must be evident to everyone who understands 
what this war has wrought in the opinion and temper of 
the world that no general peace, no peace worth the in- 
finite sacrifices of these years of tragical suffering, can 
possibly be arrived at in any such fashion. The method 
the German Chancellor proposes is the method of the 
Congress of Vienna. We cannot and will not return to 
that. What is at stake now is the peace of the world. 
What we are striving for is a new international order 
based upon broad and universal principles of right and 
justice, — no mere peace of shreds and patches. Is it 
possible that Count von Hertling does not see that, does 
not grasp it, is in fact living in his thought in a world 
dead and gone? Has he utterly forgotten the Eeichstag 
"Resolutions of the nineteenth of July, or does he deliber- 
ately ignore them? They spoke of the conditions of a 
general peace, not of national aggrandizement or of ar- 
rangements between state and state. The peace of the 
world depends upon the just settlement of each of the 
several problems to which I adverted in my recent ad- 
dress to the Congress. I, of course, do not mean that the 
peace of the world depends upon the acceptance of any 
particular set of suggestions as to the way in which those 
problems are to be dealt with. I mean only that those 
problems each and all affect the whole world ; that unless 
they are dealt with in a spirit of unselfish and unbiased 
justice, with a view to the wishes, the natural connections, 
the racial aspirations, the security, and the peace of mind 
of the peoples involved, no permanent peace will have 
been attained. They cannot be discussed separately or 
in corners. None of them constitutes a private or sep- 
arate interest from which the opinion of the world may 



WOODROW WILSON 479 

be shut out. Whatever affects the peace affects mankind, 
and nothing settled by military force, if settled wrong, is 
settled at all. It will presently have to be reopened. 

"Is Count von Hertling not aware that he is speak- 
ing in the court of mankind, that all the awakened nations 
of the world now sit in judgment on what every public 
man, of whatever nation, may say on the issues of a 
conflict which has spread to every region of the world? 
The Eeichstag Resolutions of July themselves frankly 
accepted the decisions of that court. There shall be no 
annexations, no contributions, no punitive damages. 
Peoples are not to be handed about from one sovereignty 
to another by an international conference or an under- 
standing between rivals and antagonists. National as- 
pirations must be respected; peoples may now be dom- 
inated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self- 
determination' is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative 
principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth 
ignore at their peril. We cannot have general peace for 
the asking, or by the mere arrangements of a peace con- 
ference. It cannot be pieced together out of individual 
understandings between powerful states. All the parties 
to this war must join in the settlement of every issue 
anywhere involved in it ; because what we are seeking is 
a peace that we can all unite to guarantee and maintain 
and every item of it must be submitted to the common 
judgment whether it be right and fair, an act of justice, 
rather than a bargain between sovereigns. 

"The United States has no desire to interfere in 
European affairs or to act as arbiter in European terri- 
torial disputes. She would disdain to take advantage of 
any internal weakness or disorder to impose her own will 
upon another people. She is quite ready to be shown 
that the settlements she has suggested are not the best 
or the most enduring. They are only her own provisional 
sketch of principles and of the way in which they should 
be applied. But she entered this war because she was 



480 WOODROW WILSON 

made a partner, whether she would or not, in the suffer- 
ings and indignities inflicted by the military masters of 
Germany, against the peace and security of mankind; 
and the conditions of peace will touch her as nearly as 
they will touch any other nation to which is entrusted a 
leading part in the maintenance of civilization. She 
cannot see her way to peace until the causes of this war 
are removed, its renewal rendered as nearly as may 
be impossible. 

"This war had its roots in the disregard of the rights 
of small nations and of nationalities which lacked the 
union and the force to make good their claim to determine 
their own allegiances and their own forms of political life. 
Covenants must now be entered into which will render 
such things impossible for the future; and those cove- 
nants must be backed by the united force of all the na- 
tions that love justice and are willing to maintain it at 
any cost. If territorial settlements and the political rela- 
tions of great populations which have not the organized 
power to resist are to be determined by the contracts of 
the powerful governments which consider themselves 
most directly affected, as Count von Hertling proposes, 
why may not economic questions also 1 It has come about 
in the altered world in which we now find ourselves that 
justice and the rights of peoples affect the whole field of 
international dealing as much as access to raw materials 
and fair and equal conditions of trade. Count von 
Hertling wants the essential bases of commercial and 
industrial life to be safeguarded by common agreement 
and guarantee, but he cannot expect that to be conceded 
him if the other matters to be determined by the articles 
on peace are not handled in the same way as items in the 
final accounting. He cannot ask the benefit of common 
agreement in the one field without according it in the 
other. I take it for granted that he sees that separate 
and selfish compacts with regard to trade and the es- 
sential materials of manufacture would afford no f ounda- 



WOODROW WILSON 481 

tion for peace. Neither, he may rest assured, will separate 
and selfish compacts with regard to provinces and peo- 
ples. 

" Count Czernin seems to see the fundamenetal ele- 
ments of peace with clear eyes and does not seek to ob- 
scure them. He sees that an independent Poland, made 
up of all the indisputably Polish peoples who lie con- 
tiguous to one another, is a matter of European concern 
and must of course be conceded ; that Belgium must be 
evacuated and restored, no matter what sacrifices and 
concessions that may involve; and that national aspira- 
tions must be satisfied, even within his own Empire, in 
the common interest of Europe and mankind. If he is 
silent about questions which touch the interest and pur- 
pose of his allies more nearly than they touch those of 
Austria only, it must of course be because he feels con- 
strained, I suppose, to defer to Germany and Turkey in 
the circumstances. Seeing and conceding, as he does, 
the essential principles involved and the necessity of can- 
didly applying them, he naturally feels that Austria can 
respond to the purpose of peace as expressed by the 
United States with less embarrassment than could Ger- 
many. He would probably have gone much farther had 
it not been for the embarrassments of Austria's alliances 
and of her dependence upon Germany. 

"After all, the test of whether it is possible for 
either government to go any further in this comparison 
of views is simple and obvious. The principles to be 
applied are these: 

"First, that each part of the final settlement must be 
based upon the essential justice of that particular case 
and upon such adjustments as are most likely to bring a 
peace that will be permanent ; 

"Second, that peoples and provinces are not to be 
bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they 
were mere chattels and pawns in a game, even the great 



482 WOODROW WILSON 

game, now forever discredited, of the balance of power ; 
but that 

"Third, every territorial settlement involved in this 
war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of 
the populations concerned, and not as a part of any mere 
adjustment or compromise of claims amongst rival 
states ; and 

"Fourth, that all well denned national aspirations 
shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be 
accorded them without introducing new or perpetuating 
old elements of discord and antagonism that would be 
likely in time to break the peace of Europe and conse- 
quently of the world. 

"A general peace erected upon such foundations 
can be discussed. Until such a peace can be secured we 
have no choice but to go on. So far as we can judge, these 
principles that we regard as fundamenetal are already 
everywhere accepted as imperative except among the 
spokesmen of the military and annexationist party in 
Germany. If they have anywhere else been rejected, the 
objectors have not been sufficiently numerous or influ- 
ential to make their voices audible. The tragical circum- 
stance is that this one party in Germany is apparently 
willing and able to send millions of men to their death to 
prevent what all the world now sees to be just. 

"I would not be a true spokesman of the people of 
the United States if I did not say once more that we 
entered this war upon no small occasion, and that we 
can never turn back from a course chosen upon principle. 
Our resources are in part mobilized now, and we shall 
not pause until they are mobilized in their entirety. Our 
armies are rapidly going to the fighting front, and will 
go more and more rapidly. Our whole strength will be 
put into this war of emancipation, — emancipation from 
the threat and attempted mastery of selfish groups of 
autocratic rulers, — whatever the difficulties and present 
partial delays. We are indomitable in our power of inde- 



WOODROW WILSON ■ 483 

pendent action and can in no circumstances consent to 
live in a world governed by intrigue and force. We be- 
lieve that our own desire for a new international order 
under which reason and justice and the common interests 
of mankind shall prevail is the desire of enlightened men 
everywhere. Without that new order the world will be 
without peace and human life will lack tolerable condi- 
tions of existence and development. Having set our hand 
to the task of achieving it, we shall not turn back. 

"I hope that it is not necessary for me to add that no 
word of what I have said is intended as a threat. That is 
not the temper of our people. I have spoken thus only 
that the whole world may know the true spirit of America 
— that men everywhere may know that our passion for 
justice and for self-government is no mere passion of 
words but a passion which, once set in action, must be 
satisfied. The power of the United States is a menace to 
no nation or people. It will never be used in aggression 
or for the aggrandizement of any selfish interest of our 
own. It springs out of freedom and is for the service of 
freedom. ' ' 



CHAPTEK XXVIII 
THE CHALLENGE OF FORCE. 

The enemy chancellors replied to the President on 
February 25th. Both said they could "fundamentally 
agree' ' on the peace terms outlined by the President 
but expressed unbelief in his ability to unite the other 
allied nations in an agreement along the lines proposed. 
In contradiction of the principles they agreed to accept, 
ruinous peace treaties were signed with Russia and 
Roumania the following week. This was the real answer 
to the President and he realized that he was being chal- 
lenged to use force. He accepted the gage and addressed 
the country in a speech delivered at Baltimore on April 
6th, 1918, a year after America entered the war, in which 
he stated his acceptance of the German threat. His 
speech follows : 

"This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Ger- 
many's challenge to fight for our right to live and be 
free, and for the sacred rights of free men everywhere. 
The Nation is awake. There is no need to call to it. We 
know what the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the 
lives of our fittest men and, if need be, all that we possess. 
The loan we are met to discuss is one of the least parts of 
what we are called upon to give and to do, though in itself 
imperative. The people of the whole country are alive 
to the necessity of it, and are ready to lend to the utmost, 
even where it involves a sharp skimping and daily sacri- 
fice to lend out of meagre earnings. They will look with 
reprobation and contempt upon those who can and will 
not, upon those who demand a higher rate of interest, 
upon those who think of it as a mere commercial transac- 

484 



WOODROW WILSON 485 

tion. I have not come, therefore, to urge the loan. I have 
come only to give you, if I can, a more vivid conception of 
what it is for. 

"The reasons for this great war, the reason why it 
had to come, the need to fight it through, and the issues 
that hang upon its outcome, are more clearly disclosed 
now than ever before. It is easy to see just what this par- 
ticular loan means because the Cause we are fighting for 
stands more sharply revealed than at any previous crisis 
of the momentous struggle. The man who knows least 
can now see plainly how the cause of Justice stands and 
what the imperishable thing is he is asked to invest in. 
Men in America may be more sure than they ever were 
before that the cause is their own, and that, if it should 
be lost, their own great Nation's place and mission in the 
world would be lost with it. 

"I call you to witness, my fellow countrymen, that 
at no stage of this terrible business have I judged the 
purposes of Germany intemperately. I should be 
ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave, so fraught 
with the destinies of mankind throughout all the world, 
to speak with truculuence, to use the weak language of 
hatred or vindictive purpose. We must judge as we 
would be judged. I have sought to learn the objects Ger- 
many has in this war from the mouths of her own spokes- 
men, and to deal as frankly with them as I wished them 
to deal with me. I have laid bare our own ideals, our own 
purposes, without reserve or doubtful phrase, and have 
asked them to say as plainly what it is that they seek. 

"We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no ag- 
gression. We are ready, whenever the final reckoning is 
made, to be just to the German people, deal fairly with 
the German power, as with all others. There can be no 
difference between peoples in the final judgment, if it is 
indeed to be a righteous judgment. To propose anything 
but justice, evenhanded and dispassionate justice, to 
Germany at any time, whatever the outcome of the war, 



486 WOODROW WILSON 

would be to renounce and dishonor our own cause. For 
we ask nothing that we are not willing to accord. 

"It has been with this thought that I have sought to 
learn from those who spoke for Germany whether it was 
justice or dominion and the execution of their own will 
upon the other nations of the world that the German 
leaders were seeking. They have answered, answered 
in unmistakable terms. They have avowed that it was 
not justice but dominion and the unhindered execution of 
their own will. 

"The avowal has not come from Germany's states- 
men. It has come from her military leaders, who are her 
real rulers. Her statesmen have said that they wished 
peace, and were ready to discuss its terms whenever their 
opponents were willing to sit down at the conference 
table with them. Her present Chancellor has said — in 
indefinite and uncertain terms, indeed, and in phrases 
that often seem to deny their own meaning, but with as 
much plainness as he thought prudent — that he believed 
that peace should be based upon the principles which we 
had declared would be our own in the final settlement. At 
Brest-Litovsk her civilian delegates spoke in similar 
terms ; professed their desire to conclude a fair peace and 
accord to the peoples with whose fortunes they were deal- 
ing the right to choose their own allegiances. But action 
accompanied and followed the profession. Their mili- 
tary masters, the men who act for Germany and exhibit 
her purpose in execution, proclaimed a very different 
conclusion. We can not mistake what they have done — 
In Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in Rumania. The 
real test of their justice and fair play has come. From 
this we may judge the rest. They are enjoying in Russia 
a cheap triumph in which no brave or gallant nation can 
long take pride. A great people, helpless by their own 
act, lies for the time at their mercy. Their fair profes- 
sions are forgotten. They nowhere set up justice, but 
everywhere impose their power and exploit everything 



WOODROW WILSON 487 

for their own use and aggrandizement ; and the peoples 
of conquered provinces are invited to be free under their 
dominion ! 

"Are we not justified in believing that they would 
do the same things at their western front if they were 
not there face to face with armies whom even their count- 
less divisions can not overcome ? If, when they have felt 
their check to be final, they should propose favorable 
and equitable terms with regard to Belgium and France 
and Italy, could they blame us if we concluded that they 
did so only to assure themselves of a free hand in Russia 
and the East? 

1 ' Their purpose is undoubtedly to make all the Slavic 
peoples, all the free and ambitious nations of the Baltic 
peninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and 
misruled, subject to their will and ambition and build 
upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they 
fancy that they can then erect an empire of gain and 
commercial supremacy — an empire as hostile to the 
Americas as to the Europe which it will overawe — an 
empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and 
the peoples of the Far East. In such a program our 
ideals, the ideals of justice and humanity and liberty, the 
principle of the free self-determination of nations upon 
which all the modern world insists, can play no part. 
They are rejected for the ideals of power, for the prin- 
ciple that the strong must rule the weak, that trade must 
follow the flag, whether those to whom it is taken welcome 
it or not, that the peoples of the world are to be made 
subject to the patronage and overlordship of those who 
have the power to enforce it. 

"That program once carried out, America and all 
who care or dare to stand with her must arm and prepare 
themselves to contest the mastery of the World, a mastery 
in which the rights of common men, the rights of women 
and of all who are weak, must for the time being be 
trodden under foot and disregarded, and the old, age- 






488 WOODROW WILSON 

long struggle for freedom and right begin again at its 
beginning. Everything that America has lived for and 
loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to a glor-' 
ious realization will have fallen in utter ruin and the 
gates of mercy once more pitilessly shut upon mankind! 

"The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet 
is not that what the whole course and action of the Ger- 
man armies has meant wherever they have moved? I do 
not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, to 
judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what the 
German arms have accomplished with unpitying 
thoroughness throughout every fair region they have 
touched. 

' ' What, then, are we to do ? For myself, I am ready, 
ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and just and 
honest peace at any time that it is sincerely purposed — a 
peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. 
But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came from 
the German commanders in Russia, and I cannot mis- 
take the meaning of the answer. 

"I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. 
All the world shall know that you accept it. It shall 
appear in the utter sacrifice and self-forgetfulness with 
which we shall give all that we love and all that we have 
to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like 
ourselves to live in. This now is the meaning of all 
that we do. Let everything that we say, my fellow coun- 
trymen, everything that we henceforth plan and ac- 
complish, ring true to this response till the majesty and 
might of our concerted power shall fill the thought and 
utterly defeat the force of those who flout and misprize 
what we honour and hold dear. Germany has once more 
said that force, and force alone, shall decide whether 
Justice and peace shall reign in the affairs of men, 
whether Right as America conceives it or Dominion as 
she conceives it shall determine the destinies of man- 
kind. There is, therefore, but one response possible from 



WOODROW WILSON 489 

us : Force, Force to the utmost, Force without stint or 
limit, the righteous and triumphant Force which shall 
make Right the law of the world, and cast every selfish 
dominion down in the dust. ' ' 

How well that answer to the German Government 
was carried out was told at Chateau Thierry two months 
afterward. There the Prussian Guard followed on the 
heels of the retreating French only to come to a stop near 
the positions of two battalions of American marines. It 
was the turning point of the world war and Force had 
been met with Force. The marines won. 

On July 4th, a few days after the marines delivered 
the President's answer in person, President Wilson once 
more stated the aims of the allies from the porch of 
George Washington's residence at Mount Vernon. He 
said: 

"I am happy to draw apart with you to this quiet 
place of old counsel in order to speak a little of the mean- 
ing of this day of our nation's independence. The place 
seems very still and remote. It is as serene and un- 
touched by the hurry of the world as it was in those great 
days long ago when General Washington was here and 
held leisurely conference with the men who were to be 
associated with him in the creation of a nation. From 
these gentle slopes they looked out upon the world and 
saw it whole, saw it with the light of the future upon it, 
saw it with modern eyes that turned away from a past 
which men of liberated spirits could no longer endure. 
It is for that reason that we cannot feel, even here,_ in the 
immediate presence of this sacred tomb, that this is a 
place of death. It was a place of achievement. A great 
promise that was meanf for all mankind was here given 
plan and reality. The Associations by which we are here 
surrounded are the inspiriting associations of thai noble 
death which is only a glorious consummation. From this 
green hillside we also ought to be able to see with com pre- 



490 WOODROW WILSON 

hending eyes the world that lies about us and should con- 
ceive anew the purposes that must set men free. 

"It is significant — significant of their own character 
and purpose and of the influences they were setting afoot 
— that Washington and his associates, like the barons at 
Runnymede, spoke and acted, not for a class, but for a 
people. It has been left for us to see to it that it shall 
be understood that they spoke and acted, not for a single 
people only, but for all mankind. They were thinking, 
not of themselves and of the material interests which 
centred in the little groups of landholders and merchants 
and men of affairs with whom they were accustomed to 
act, in Virginia and the colonies to the north and south of 
her, but of a people which wished to be done with classes 
and special interests and the authority of men whom they 
had not themselves chosen to rule over them. They en- 
tertained no private purpose, desired no peculiar priv- 
ilege. They were consciously planning that men of every 
class should be free and America a place to which men 
out of every nation might resort who wished to share 
with them the rights and privileges of free men. And we 
take our cue from them — do we not? We intend what 
they intended. We here in America believe our participa- 
tion in this present war to be only the fruitage of what 
they planted. Our case differs from theirs only in this, 
that it is our inestimable privilege to concert with men 
out of every nation what shall make not only the liberties 
of America secure but the liberties of every other people as 
well. We are happy in the thought that we are permitted 
to do what they would have done had they been in our 
place. There must now be settled once for all what was 
settled for America in the great age upon whose inspira- 
tion we draw today. This is surely a fitting place from 
which calmly to look out upon our task, that we may 
fortify our spirits for its accomplishment. And this is 
the appropriate place from which to avow, alike to the 
friends who look on and to the friends with whom we have 



WOODROW WILSON 491 

the happiness to be associated in action, the faith and 
purpose with which we act. 

"This, then, is our conception of the great struggle 
in which we are engaged. The plot is written plain upon 
every scene and every act of the supreme tragedy. On 
the one hand stand the peoples of the world — not only the 
peoples actually engaged, but many others also who suffer 
under mastery but cannot act; peoples of many races 
and in every part of the world — the people of stricken 
Eussia still, among the rest, though they are for the 
moment unorganized and helpless. Opposed to them, 
masters of many armies, stand an isolated, friendless 
group of governments who speak no common purpose but 
only selfish ambitions of their own by which none can 
profit but themselves, and whose peoples are fuel in their 
hands ; governments which fear their people and yet are 
for the time their sovereign lords, making every choice 
for them and disposing of their lives and fortunes as they 
will, as well as of the lives and fortunes of every people 
who fall under their power — governments clothed with 
the strange trappings and the primitive authority of an 
age that is altogether alien and hostile to our owil The 
Past and the Present are in deadly grapple and the peo- 
ples of the world are being done to death between them. 

"There can be but one issue. The settlement must 
be final. There can be no compromise. No halfway de- 
cision would be tolerable. No halfway decision is con- 
ceivable. These are the ends for which the associated 
peoples of the world are fighting and which must be con- 
ceded them before there can be peace : 

"I. The destruction of every arbitrary power any- 
where that can separately, secretly, and of its single 
choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be 
presently destroyed, at the least its reduction to virtual 
impotence. 

"II. The settlement of every question, whether of 
territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or 



492 WOODROW WILSON 

of political relationship; upon the basis of the free ac- 
ceptance of that settlement by the people immediately 
concerned, and not upon the basis of the material interest 
or advantage of any other nation or people which may 
desire a different settlement for the sake of its own ex- 
terior influence or mastery. 

"III. The consent of all nations to be governed in 
their conduct towards each other by the same principles 
of honor and of respect for the common law of civilized 
society that govern the individual citizens of all modern 
states in their relations with one another ; to the end that 
all promises and covenants may be sacredly observed, no 
private plots or conspiracies hatched, no selfish injuries 
wrought with impunity, and a mutual trust established 
upon the handsome foundation of a mutual respect for 
right. 

"IV. The establishment of an organization of peace 
which shall make it certain that the combined power 
of free nations will check every invasion of right and 
serve to make peace and justice the more secure by 
affording a definite tribunal of opinion to which all must 
submit and by which every international readjustment 
that cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples di- 
rectly concerned shall be sanctioned. 

"These great objects can be put into a single 
sentence. What we seek is the reign of law, based upon 
the consent of the governed and sustained by the or- 
ganized opinion of mankind. 

"These great ends cannot be achieved by debating 
and seeking to reconcile and accommodate what states- 
men may wish, with their projects for balances of power 
and of national opportunity. They can be realized only 
by the determination of what the thinking peoples of the 
world desire, with their longing hope for justice and for 
social freedom and opportunity. 

"I can fancy that the air of this place carries the 
accents of such principles with a peculiar kindness. Here 






WOODROW WILSON 493 

were started forces which the great nation against which 
they were primarily directed at first regarded as a revolt 
against its rightful authority but which it has long since 
seen to have been a step in the liberation of its own peo- 
ple as well as of the people of the United States ; and I 
stand here now to speak — speak proudly and with con- 
fident hope — of the spread of this revolt, this liberation, 
to the great stage of the world itself ! The blinded rulers 
of Prussia have roused forces they knew little of — forces 
which, once roused, can never be crushed to earth again ; 
for they have at their heart an inspiration and a purpose 
which are deathless and of the very stuff of triumph ! ' ' 

The beginning of the end came on September 14th 
when a note from the Austro-Hungarian government 
was handed to the American representative in Berne, 
Switzerland. The communication asked for a conference 
to decide terms of peace. It was at once sent to President 
Wilson who replied on September 16th, as follows : 

1 ' Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your note, dated Sept. 16, communicating to me a note 
from the imperial government of Austria-Hungary, con- 
taining a proposal to the governments of all the belliger- 
ent states to send delegates to a confidential and unbind- 
ing discussion on the basic principles for the conclusion 
of peace. Furthermore, it is proposed that the delegates 
would be charged to make known to one another the con- 
ception of their governments regarding these principles 
and to receive analogous communications as well as to 
request and give frank and candid explanations on all 
those points which need to be precisely defined. 

"In reply, I beg to say that the substance of your 
communication has been submitted to the president, who 
now directs me to inform you that the Government of the 
United States feels that there is only one reply which it 
can make to the suggestion of the imperial Austro-Hun- 
garian government. It has repeatedly and with entire 
candor stated the terms upon which the United States 



494 WOODROW WILSON 

would consider peace and can and will entertain no pro- 
posal for a conference upon a matter concerning which it 
has made its position and purpose so plain. ' ' 

"Lansing." 



CHAPTER XXIX 
NO PEACE BY COMPROMISE. 

The President then declared that there would be no 
peace by compromise. He again stated the demands of 
the allies in his address in New York on September 27th, 
1918, at the opening of the Fourth Liberty Loan cam- 
paign. He said: 

"I am not here to promote the loan. That will be 
done — ably and enthusiastically done — by the hundreds 
of thousands of loyal and tireless men and women who 
have undertaken to present it to you and to our fellow 
citizens throughout the country ; and I have not the least 
doubt of their complete success; for I know their spirit 
and the spirit of the country. My confidence is confirmed, 
too, by the thoughtful and experienced cooperation of 
the bankers here and everywhere, who are lending their 
invaluable aid and guidance. I have come, rather, to 
seek an opportunity to present to you some thoughts 
which I trust will serve to give you, in perhaps fuller 
measure than before, a vivid sense of the great issues 
involved, in order that you may appreciate and accept 
with added enthusiasm the grave significance of the duty 
of supporting the Government by your men and your 
means to the utmost point of sacrifice and self-denial. 
No man or woman who has really taken in what this war 
means can hesitate to give to the very limit of what they 
have ; and it is my mission here tonight to try to make it 
clear once more what the war really means. You will 
need no other stimulation or reminder of your duty. 

" At every turn of the war we gain a fresh conscious- 
ness of what we mean to accomplish by it. When our 

495 



496 WOODROW WILSON 

hope and expectation are most excited we think more 
definitely than before of the issues that hang upon it and 
of the purposes which must be realized by means of it. 
For it has positive and well-defined purposes which we 
did not determine and which we can not alter. No states- 
man or assembly created them ; no statesman or assembly 
can alter them. They have arisen out of the very nature 
and circumstances of the war. The most that statesmen 
or assemblies can do is to carry them out or be false to 
them. They were perhaps not clear at the outset; but 
they are clear now. The war has lasted more than four 
years and the whole world has been drawn into it. The 
common will of mankind has been substituted for the par- 
ticular purposes of individual states. Individual states- 
men may have started the conflict, but neither they nor 
their opponents can stop it as they please. It has become 
a people's war, and peoples of all sorts and races, of every 
degree of power and variety of fortune, are involved in 
its sweeping processes of change and settlement. We 
came into it when its character had become fully defined 
and it was plain that no nation could stand apart or be 
indifferent to its outcome. Its challange drove to the 
heart of everything we cared for and lived for. The voice 
of the war had become clear and gripped our hearts. Our 
brothers from many lands, as well as our own murdered 
dead under the sea, were calling to us, and we responded, 
fiercely and of course. 

* ' The air was clear about us. We saw things in their 
full, convincing proportions as they were; and we have 
seen them with steady eyes and unchanging compre- 
hension ever since. We accepted the issues of the war 
as facts, not as any group of men either here or elsewhere 
had defined them, and we can accept no outcome which 
does not squarely meet and settle them. Those issues are 
these : 

"Shall the military power of any nation or group of 
nations be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples 




H 




- 



pq 



Oh 



WOODROW WILSON 501 

over whom they have no right to rule except the right of 
force? 

"Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations 
and make them subject to their purpose and interesl .' 

"Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their 
own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force 
or by their own will and choice? 

"Shall there be a common standard of right and 
privilege for all peoples and nations or shall the strong 
do as they will and the weak suffer without redress ? 

"Shall the assertion of right be haphazard and by 
casual alliance or shall there be a common concert to 
oblige the observance of common rights? 

"No man, no group of men, chose these to be the 
issues of the struggle. They are the issues of it ; and they 
must be settled, — by no arrangement or compromise or 
adjustment of interest, but definitely and once for all and 
with a full and unequivocal acceptance of the principle 
that the interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest 
of the strongest. 

"This is what we mean when we speak of a perma- 
nent peace, if we speak sincerely, intelligently, and with 
a real knowledge and comprehension of the matter we 
deal with. 

"We are all agreed that there can be no peace ob- 
tained by any kind of bargain or compromise with the 
governments of the Central Empires, because we have 
dealt with them already and have seen them deal with 
other governments that were parties to this struggle, at 
Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest. They have convinced us 
that they are without honor and do not intend justice. 
They observe no covenants, accept no principle but force 
and their own interest. We can not "come to terms' ■ 
with them. They have made it impossible. The German 
people must by this time be fully aware that we can not 
accept the word of those who forced this war upon us. 



502 WOODROW WILSON 

We do not think the same thoughts or speak the same 
language of agreement. 

"It is of capital importance that we should also be 
explicitly agreed that no peace shall be obtained by any 
kind of compromise or abatement of the principles we 
have avowed as the principles for which we are fighting. 
There should exist no doubt about that. I am, therefore, 
going to take the liberty of speaking with the utmost 
frankness about the practical implications that are in- 
volved in it. 

"If it be in deed and in truth the common object of 
the governments associated against Germany and of the 
nations whom they govern, as I believe it to be, to achieve 
by the coming settlements a secure and lasting peace, it 
will be necessary that all who sit down at the peace table 
shall come ready and willing to pay the price, the only 
price, that will procure it ; and ready and willing, also, to 
create in some virile fashion the only instrumentality 
by which it can be made certain that the agreements of 
the peace will be honored and fulfilled. 

"That price is impartial justice in every item of the 
settlement, no matter whose interest is crossed; and not 
only impartial justice but also the satisfaction of the 
several peoples whose fortunes are dealt with. That in- 
dispensable instrumentality is a League of Nations 
formed under covenants that will be efficacious. Without 
such an instrumentality, by which the peace of the world 
can be guaranteed, peace will rest in part upon the word 
of outlaws and only upon that word. For Germany will 
have to redeem her character, not by what happens at the 
peace table but by what follows. 

"And, as I see it, the constitution of that League of 
Nations and the clear definition of its objects must be a 
part, is in a sense the most essential part, of the peace 
settlement itself. It cannot be formed now. If formed 
now it would be merely a new alliance confined to the 
nations associated against a common enemy. It is not 



WOODRCnV WILSON 503 

likely that it could be formed after the settlement. It is 
necessary to guarantee the peace ; and the peace can not 
be guaranteed as an afterthought. The reason, to speak 
in plain terms again, why it must be guaranteed is that 
there will be parties to the peace whose promises have 
proved untrustworthy, and means must be found in con- 
nection with the peace settlement itself to remove that 
source of insecurity. It would be folly to leave the guar- 
antee to the subsequent voluntary action of the Govern- 
ments we have seen destroy Eussia and deceive Rumania. 

"But these general terms do not disclose the whole 
matter. Some details are needed to make them sound 
less like a thesis and more like a practical program. 
These, then, are some of the particulars, and I state them 
with the greater confidence because I can state them 
authoritatively as representing this Government's in- 
terpretation of its own duty with regard to peace : 

"First, the impartial justice meted out must involve 
no discrimination between those to whom we wish to 
be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It 
must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows no 
standard but the equal rights of the several peoples con- 
cerned ; 

' ' Second, no special or separate interest of any single 
nation or any group of nations can be made the basis of 
any part of the settlement which is not consistent with 
the common interest of all; 

"Third, there can, be no leagues or alliances or 
special covenants and understandings within the general 
and common family of the League of Nations. 

"Fourth, and more specifically, there can be no 
special, selfish economic combinations within the League 
and no employment of any form of economic boycott or 
exclusion except as the power of economic penalty by 
exclusion from the markets of the world may be vested 
in the League of Nations itself as a means of discipline 
and control. 



504 WOODROW WILSON 

"Fifth, all international agreements and treaties of 
every kind must be made known in their entirety to the 
rest of the world. 

"Special alliances and economic rivalries and hos- 
tilities have been the prolific source in the modern world 
of the plans and passions that produce war. It would be 
an insincere as well as insecure peace that did not exclude 
them in definite and binding terms. 

"The confidence with which I venture to speak for 
our people in these matters does not spring from our 
traditions merely and the well-known principles of inter- 
national action which we have always professed and fol- 
lowed. In the same sentence in which I say that the 
United States will enter into no special arrangements or 
understandings with particular nations let me say also 
that the United States is prepared to assume its full share 
of responsibility for the maintenance of the common 
covenants and understandings upon which peace must 
henceforth rest. We still read Washington's immortal 
warning against ' * entangling alliances ' ' with full compre- 
hension and an answering purpose. But only special and 
limited alliances entangle ; and we recognize and accept 
the duty of a new day in which we are permitted to hope 
for a general alliance which will avoid entanglements and 
clear the air of the world for common understandings and 
the maintenance of common rights. 

"I have made this analysis of the international situ- 
ation which the war has created, not, of course, because I 
doubted whether the leaders of the great nations and 
peoples with whom we are associated were of the same 
mind and entertained a like purpose, but because the air 
every now and again gets darkened by mists and ground- 
less doubtings and mischievous perversions of counsel 
and it is necessary once and again to sweep all the ir- 
responsible talk about peace intrigues and weakening 
morale and doubtful purpose on the part of those in 
authority utterly, and if need be unceremoniously, aside 



WOODROW WILSON 505 

and say things in the plainest words that can be found, 
even when it is only to say over again what has been said 
before, quite as plainly if in less unvarnished terms. 

"As I have said, neither I nor any other man in gov- 
ernmental authority created or gave form to the issues 
of this war. I have simply responded to them with such 
vision as I could command. But I have responded gladly 
and with a resolution that has grown warmer and more 
confident as the issues have grown clearer and clearer. 
It is now plain that they are issues which no man can 
pervert unless it be wilfully. I am bound to fight for 
them, and happy to fight for them as time and circum- 
stance have revealed them to me as to all the world. Our 
enthusiasm for them grows more and more irresistible as 
they stand out in more and more vivid and unmistakable 
outline. 

"And the forces that fight for them draw into closer 
and closer array, organize their millions into more and 
more unconquerable might, as they become more and 
more distinct to the thought and purpose of the peoples 
engaged. It is the peculiarity of this great war that 
while statesmen have seemed to cast about for definitions 
of their purpose and have sometimes seemed to shift their 
ground and their point of view, the thought of the mass 
of men, whom statesmen are supposed to instruct and 
lead, has grown more and more unclouded, more and more 
certain of what it is that they are fighting for. National 
purposes have fallen more and more into the background 
and the common purpose of enlightened mankind has 
taken their place. The counsels of plain men have be- 
come on all hands more simple and straightforward and 
more unified than the counsels of sophisticated men of 
affairs, who still retain the impression that they are play- 
ing a game of power and playing for high stakes. That is 
why I have said that this is a peoples' war, not a states- 
men's. Statesmen must follow the clarified common 
thought or be broken. 



506 WOODROW WILSON 

"I take that to be the significance of the fact that 
assemblies and associations of many kinds made up of 
plain workaday people have demanded, almost every 
time they came together, and are still demanding, that 
the leaders of their governments declare to them plainly 
what it is, exactly what it is, that they were seeking in 
this war, and what they think the items of the final settle- 
ment should be. They are not yet satisfied with what they 
have been told. They still seem to fear that they are 
getting what they ask for only in statesmen's terms, — 
only in the terms of territorial arrangements and di- 
visions of power, and not in terms of broad-visioned 
justice and mercy and peace and the satisfaction of those 
deep-seated longings of oppressed and distracted men 
and women and enslaved peoples that seem to them the 
only things worth fighting a war for that engulfs the 
world. Perhaps statesmen have not always recognized 
this changed aspect of the whole world of policy and ac- 
tion. Perhaps they have not always spoken in direct 
reply to the questions asked because they did not know 
how searching those questions were and what sort of 
answers they demanded. 

"But I, for one, am glad to attempt the answer again 
and again, in the hope that I may make it clearer and 
clearer that my one thought is to satisfy those who strug- 
gle in the ranks and are, perhaps above all others, entitled 
to a reply whose meaning no one can have any excuse for 
misunderstanding, if he understands the language in 
which it is spoken or can get someone to translate it cor- 
rectly into his own. And I believe that the leaders of the 
governments with which we are associated will speak, as 
they have occasion, as plainly as I have tried to speak. I 
hope that they will feel free to say whether they think 
that I am in any degree mistaken in my interpretation 
of the issues involved or in my purpose with regard to the 
means by which a satisfactory settlement of those issues 
may be obtained. Unity of purpose and of counsel are as 



WOODROW WILSON 507 

imperatively necessary in this war as was unity of com- 
mand in the battlefield ; and with perfect unity of purpose 
and counsel will come assurance of complete victory. It 
can be had in no other way. ' ' Peace drives ' ' can be ef- 
fectively neutralized and silenced only by showing that 
every victory of the nations associated against Germany 
brings the nations nearer the sort of peace which will 
bring security and reassurance to all peoples and make 
the recurrence of another such struggle of pitiless force 
and bloodshed forever impossible, and that nothing else 
can. Germany is constantly intimating the * terms' she 
will accept; and always finds that the world does not 
want terms. It wishes the final triumph of justice and 
fair dealing. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXX 
THE ENEMY WHINES FOE PEACE. 

On October 6th, 1918, the German government asked 
for peace and the request was supplemented by a pub- 
lished statement issued over the signature of Wilhelm II 
which read as follows : 

"For months past the enemy, with enormous ex- 
ertions and almost without pause in the fighting, has 
stormed against your lines. In weeks of the struggle, 
often without repose you have had to persevere and resist 
a numerically far superior enemy. Therein lies the great- 
ness of the task which has been set for you and which you 
are fulfilling. Troops of all the German states are doing 
their part and are heroically defending the fatherland on 
foreign soil. Hard is the task. 

"My navy is holding its own against the united 
enemy naval forces and is unwaveringly supporting the 
army in its difficult struggle. 

"The eyes of those at home rest with pride and ad- 
miration on the deeds of the army and the navy, I express 
to you the thanks of myself and the fatherland. 

"The collapse of the Macedonian front has occurred 
in the midst of the hardest struggle. In accord with our 
allies I have resolved once more to offer peace to the 
enemy, but I will only extend my hand for an honorable 
peace. We owe that to the heroes who have laid down 
their lives for the fatherland, and we make that our duty 
to our children. 

"Whether arms will be lowered is a question. Until 
then we must not slacken. We must, as hitherto, exert 
all our strength unwearily to hold our ground against 
the onslaught of our enemies. 

508 



WOODROW WILSON 509 

''The hour is grave, but trusting in your strength 
and in God's gracious help, we feel ourselves to be strong 
enough to defend our beloved fatherland. 

WILHELM." 

In response to the German overtures, the following 
note was transmitted to the American legation in Berne 
on October 8th : 

"Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge, on behalf 
of the president, your note of Oct. 6, inclosing a communi- 
cation from the German government to the president, 
and I am instructed by the president to request you to 
make the following communication to the imperial Ger- 
man chancellor : 

" 'Before making reply to the request of the imperial 
German government, and in order that that reply shall be 
as candid and straightforward as the momentous inter- 
ests involved require, the president of the United States 
deems it necessary to assure himself of the exact mean- 
ing of the note of the imperial chancellor. 

" 'Does the imperial chancellor mean that the im- 
perial German government accepts the terms laid down 
by the president in his address to the congress of the 
United States on the 8th of January last, and in subse- 
quent addresses, and that its object in entering into dis- 
cussions would be only to agree upon the practical de- 
tails of their application? 

" 'The president feels bound to say with regard to 
the suggestion of an armistice that he would not feel 
at liberty to propose a cessation of arms to the govern- 
ments with which the government of the United States is 
associated against the central powers so long as the 
armies of those powers are upon their soil. 

" 'The good faith of any discussion would mani- 
festly depend upon the consent of the central powers im- 
mediately to withdraw their forces everywhere from in- 
vaded territory. 



510 WOODROW WILSON 

' ' ' The president also feels that he is justified in ask- 
ing whether the imperial chancellor is speaking merely for 
the constituted authorities of the empire who have so far 
conducted the war. 

" 'He deems the answer to these questions vital 
from every point of view. ' 

' ' Accept, sir, the renewed assurances of my high con- 
sideration. 

ROBERT LANSING." 

The German government in its reply dodged the is- 
sue of evacuation very cleverly but the deception was de- 
tected by the President and the answer was stated in the 
following note : 

"Sir: In reply to the communication of the Ger- 
man government dated the 12th inst., which you handed 
me to-day, I have the honor to request you to transmit 
the following answer : 

' ' ' The unqualified acceptance by the present Ger- 
man government and by a large majority of the German 
reichstag of the terms laid down by the president of the 
United States of America in his address to the congress 
of the United States on the 8th of January, 1918, and 
in his subsequent addresses justifies the President in 
making a frank and direct statement of his decision with 
regard to the communications of the German govern- 
ment of the 8th and 12th of October, 1918. 

" 'It must be clearly understood that the process of 
evacuation and the conditions of an armistice are matters 
which must be left to the judgment and advice of the mil- 
itary advisers of the government of the United States 
and allied governments, and the president feels it his 
duty to say that no arrangement can be accepted by the 
government of the United States which does not provide 
absolutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of the 
maintenance of the present military supremacy of the 
armies of the United States and of the allies in the field. 



WOODROW WILSON 511 

He feels confident that he can safely assume that this will 
also be the judgment and decision of the allied govern- 
ments. 

1 ' ' The President feels that it is also his duty to 
add that neither the government of the United States nor, 
he is quite sure, the governments with which the govern- 
ment of the United States is associated as a belligerent, 
will consent to consider an armistice so long as the armed 
forces of Germany continue the illegal and inhumane 
practices which they still persist in. At the very time 
that the German government approaches the government 
of the United States with proposals of peace its sub- 
marines are engaged in sinking passenger ships at sea, 
and not the ships alone but the very boats in which their 
passengers and crews seek to make their way to safety ; 
and in their present enforced withdrawal from Flanders 
and France the German armies are pursuing a course of 
wanton destruction which has always been regarded as 
in direct violation of the rules and practices of civilized 
warfare. Cities and villages, if not destroyed, are being 
stripped of not only all they contain but often of their 
very inhabitants. The nations associated against Ger- 
many cannot be expected to agree to a cessation of arms 
while acts of inhumanity, spoliation and desolation are 
being continued, which they justly look upon with horror 
and with burning hearts. 

" 'It is necessary, also, in order that there may be no 
possibility of misunderstanding, that the President should 
very solemnly call the attention of the government ot 
Germany to the language and plain intent of one of the 
terms of peace which the German government has now 
accepted. It is contained in the address of the Presidenl 
delivered at Mount Vernon on the 4th of July last. It is 
as follows : 

" ' "The destruction of every arbitrary power any- 
where that can separately, secretly and of its single choice 
disturb the peace of the world : or, if it cannot be pres- 



512 WOODROW WILSON 

ently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual im- 
potency. ' ' 

' ' ' The power which has hitherto controlled the Ger- 
man nation is of the sort here described. It is within the 
choice of the German nation to alter it. The president's 
words just quoted naturally constitute a condition 
precedent to peace, if peace is to come by the action of 
the German people themselves. The president feels 
bound to say that the whole process of peace will, in his 
judgment, depend upon the definiteness and the satisfac- 
tory character of the guaranties which can be given in 
this fundamental matter. It is indispensable that the 
government associated against Germany should know be- 
yond peradventure with whom they are dealing.' 

"The President will make a separate reply to the 
royal and imperial government of Austria-Hungary. 

"Accept, sir, the renewed assurances of my high con- 
sideration. 

"ROBERT LANSING." 

The German reply to this note was returned promptly 
and said that the German people had been given a voice 
in the government, therefore it was time for an armistice. 
To this President Wilson replied on Oct. 23rd, as follows : 

' ' Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of your note of the 22nd transmitting a communication 
under date of the 20th from the German government and 
to advise you that the president has instructed me to re- 
ply thereto as follows : 

1 ' ' Having received the solemn and explicit assurance 
of the German government that it unreservedly accepts 
the terms of peace laid clown in his address to the congress 
of the United States on the 8th of January, 1918, and the 
principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent ad- 
dresses, particularly the address of the 27th of September, 
and that it desires to discuss the details of their applica- 
tion and that this wish and purpose emanated, not from 



WOODROW WILSON 513 

those who have hitherto dictated German policy and con- 
ducted the present war on Germany's behalf, but from 
ministers who speak for the majority of the reichstag and 
for an overwhelming majority of the German people; and 
having received also the explicit promise of the present 
German government that the humane rules of civilized 
warfare will be observed both on land and sea by the 
German armed forces, the president of the United States 
feels that he cannot decline to take up with the govern- 
ments with which the government of the United States is 
associated the question of an armistice. 

" 'He deems it his duty to say again, however, that 
the only armistice he would feel justified in submitting 
for consideration would be one which should leave the 
United States and the powers associated with her in a 
position to enforce any arrangements that may be entered 
into and to make a renewal of hostilities on the part of 
Germany impossible. 

" 'The president has, therefore, transmitted his cor- 
respondence with the present German authorities to the 
governments with which the government of the United 
States is associated as a belligerent, with the suggestion 
that, if those governments are disposed to effect peace 
upon the terms and principles indicated, their military ad- 
visers and the military advisers of the United States be 
asked to submit to the governments associated against 
Germany the necessary terms of such an armistice as will 
fully protect the interests of the peoples involved and 
insure to the associated governments the unrestricted 
power to safeguard and enforce the details of the peace 
to which the German government has agreed, provided 
they deem such an armistice possible from the military 
point of view. 

1 ' ' Should such terms of armistice be suggested, their 
acceptance by Germany will afford the best concrete evi- 
dence of her unequivocal acceptance of the tonus and 
principles of peace from which the whole action proceeds. 



514 WOODROW WILSON 

' ' 1 The President would deem himself lacking in 
candor did he not point out in the frankest possible terms 
the reason why extraordinary safeguards must be de- 
manded. Significant and important as the constitutional 
changes seem to be which are spoken of by the German 
foreign secretary in his note of the 20th of October, it 
does not appear that the principle of a government re- 
sponsible to the German people has yet been fully worked 
out or that any guaranties either exist or are in contem- 
plation that the alterations of principle and of practice 
now partially agreed upon will be permanent. 

" 'Moreover, it does not appear that the heart of 
the present difficulty has been reached. It may be that 
future wars have been brought under the control of the 
German people, but the present war has not been ; and it 
is with the present war that we are dealing. 

"'It is evident that the German people have no 
means of commanding the acquiescence of the military 
authorities of the empire in the popular will; that the 
power of the king of Prussia to control the policy of the 
empire is unimpaired; that the determining initiative 
still remains with those who have hitherto been the mas- 
ters of Germany. 

' ' ' Feeling that the whole peace of the world depends 
now on plain speaking and straightforward action, the 
president deems it his duty to say, without any attempt 
to soften what may seem harsh words, that the nations 
of the world do not and cannot trust the word of those 
who have hitherto been the masters of German policy, 
and to point out once more that, in concluding peace and 
attempting to undo the infinite injuries and injustices of 
this war, the government of the United States cannot 
deal with any but veritable representatives of the Ger- 
man people who have been assured of a genuine consti- 
tutional standing as the real rulers of Germany. 

'"If it must deal with the military masters and the 
monarchical autocrats of Germany now, or if it is likely to 



WOODROW WILSON 515 

have to deal with them later in regard to the international 
obligations of the German empire, it must demand, not 
peace negotiations, but surrender. Nothing can be gained 
by leaving this essential thing unsaid. ' 

"Accept, sir, the renewed assurances of high con- 
sideration. 

"ROBERT LANSING." 

On Oct. 19, 1918, Secretary Lansing made public 
the following note received through W. A. F. Ekengren, 
Swedish minister to the United States, from the Austro- 
Hungarian government : 

"Legation of Sweden, Washington, D. C, Oct. 7, 
1918. 

1 ' Excellency : By order of my government I have the 
honor confidentially to transmit herewith to you the fol- 
lowing communication of the imperial and royal govern- 
ment of Austria-Hungary to the president of the United 
States of America : 

"'The Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which has 
waged war always and solely as a defensive war and re- 
peatedly given documentary evidence of its readiness to 
stop the shedding of blood and to arrive at a just and 
honorable peace, hereby addresses itself to his lordship 
the President of the United States of America and offers 
to conclude with him and his allies an armistice on every 
front on land, at sea and in the air, and to enter immedi- 
ately upon negotiations for a peace for which the four- 
teen points in the message of President Wilson to con- 
gress of Jan. 8, 1918, and the four points contained in 
President Wilson's address of Feb. 12, 1918, should 
serve as a foundation in which the viewpoints declared by 
President Wilson in his address of Sept. 27, 1918, will 
also be taken into account.' 

' ' Be pleased to accept, etc. 

"W. A. F. EKENGREN." 



516 WOODROW WILSON 

President Wilson on October 19th replied through 
Secretary Lansing to the foregoing note as follows : 

"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
note of the 7th instant in which you transmit a communi- 
cation of the imperial and royal government of Austria- 
Hungary to the President. I am now instructed by the 
President to request you to be good enough through your 
government to convey to the imperial and royal govern- 
ment the following reply : 

' ' ' The President deems it his duty to say to the 
Austro-Hungarian government that he cannot entertain 
the present suggestions of that government because of 
certain events of utmost importance which, occurring 
since the delivery of his address of the 8th of January 
last, have necessarily altered the attitude and responsi- 
bility of the government of the United States. 

" 'Among the fourteen terms of peace which the 
President formulated at that time occurred the follow- 
ing: 

it i <<20. ij^g p e0 pi es f Austria-Hungary, whose 
place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and 
assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of 
autonomous development." 

' ' ' Since the sentence was written and uttered to the 
Congress of the United States the Government of the 
United States has recognized that a state of belligerency 
exists between the Czecho-Slovaks and the German and 
Austro-Hungarian empires and that the Czecho-Slovak 
national council is a de facto belligerent government, 
clothed with proper authority to direct the military and 
political affairs of the Czecho-Slovaks. It has also recog- 
nized in the fullest manner the justice of the nationalistic 
aspirations of the Jugo Slavs for freedom. 

a "phe President is, therefore, no longer at liberty to 
accept the mere "autonomy" of these peoples as a basis 
of peace, but is obliged to insist that they, and not he, shall 
be the judges of what action on the part of the Austro- 




THE PRESIDENT AND EX-PRESIDENT TAFT. 




PRESIDENT WILSON AND PARTY ARRIVING IN 
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE, PARIS, SEINE, FRANCE 




PARISIANS AND AMERICANS GREET 
THE PRESIDENT IN FRANCE. 



WOODROW WILSON 52] 

Hungarian government will satisfy their aspirations and 
their conception of their rights and destiny as members of 
the family of nations. ' 

"Accept, sir, the renewed assurances of my highest 
consideration. 

"ROBERT LANSING." 

On November 5th Secretary of State Lansing, by 
direction of President Wilson, sent the following note to 
the German government through the Swiss legation in 
Washington : 

"In my note of October 23, 1918, I advised you that 
the President had transmitted his correspondence with 
the German authorities to the government with which the 
government of the United States is associated as a bel- 
ligerent, with the suggestion that, if those governments 
were disposed to accept peace upon the terms and prin- 
ciples indicated, their military advisers and the military 
advisers of the United States be asked to submit to the 
governments associated against Germany the necessary 
terms of such an armistice as would fully protect the in- 
terests of the peoples involved and insure to the associated 
governments the unrestricted power to safeguard and en- 
force the details of the peace to which the German gov- 
ernment had agreed, provided they deem such an armis- 
tice possible from the military point of view. 

' ' The President is now in receipt of a memorandum 
of observations by the allied governments on this corre- 
spondence, which is as follows : 

' ' ' The allied governments have given careful consid- 
eration to the correspondence which has passed between 
the President of the United States and the German gov- 
ernment. Subject to the qualifications which follow, they 
declare their willingness to make peace with the govern- 
ment of Germany on the terms of peace laid down in the 
President's address to Congress of January, 1918, and 
the principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent 



522 WOODROW WILSON 

addresses. They must point out, however, that clause 2, 
relating to what is usually described as the freedom of the 
seas, is open to various interpretations, some of which 
they could not accept. They must, therefore, reserve to 
themselves complete freedom on this subject when they 
enter the peace conference. 

" 'Further, in the conditions of peace laid down in his 
address to Congress on January 8, 1918, the President de- 
clared that invaded territories must be restored as well 
as evacuated and freed; the allied governments feel that 
no doubt ought to be allowed to exist as to what this pro- 
vision implies. By it they understand that compensation 
will be made by Germany for all damage done to the 
civilian population of the Allies and their property by the 
aggression of Germany by land, by sea, and from the air. ' 

"I am instructed by the President to say that he is 
in agreement with the interpretation set forth in the last 
paragraph of the memorandum above quoted. I am fur- 
ther instructed by the President to request you to notify 
the German government that Marshal Foch has been 
authorized by the government of the United States and 
the allied governments to receive properly accredited rep- 
resentatives of the German government and to communi- 
cate to them the terms of an armistice. 

"ROBERT LANSING." 

On October 28th Count Julius Andrassy, the new 
Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, sent the following 
reply to President Wilson through the Swedish govern- 
ment: 

"In reply to the note of President Wilson of the 19th 
of this month, addressed to the Austro-Hungarian gov- 
ernment, and giving the decision of the President to speak 
directly with the Austro-Hungarian government on the 
question of an armistice and of peace, the Austro-Hun- 
garian government has the honor to declare that equally 
with the preceding proclamations of the President it ad- 



WOODROW WILSON 523 

heres also to the same point of view contained in the last 
note upon the rights of the Anstro-Hungarian peoples, 
especially those of the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo Slavs. 

" Consequently, Austria-Hungary accepting all the 
conditions the President has laid down for the entry into 
negotiations for an armistice and peace, no obstacle 
exists, according to the judgment of the Austro-Hun- 
garian government, to the beginning of these negotia- 
tions. 

"The Austro-Hungarian government declares it sell' 
ready, in consequence, without awaiting the result of 
other negotiations, to enter into negotiations upon peace 
between Austria-Hungary and the states in the opposing 
group and for an immediate armistice upon all Austro- 
Hungarian fronts. 

"It asks President Wilson to be so kind as to begin 
overtures on this subject." 

On October 29th Austria-Hungary, through Count 
Andrassy, sent the following note to Secretary of State 
Lansing : 

"Immediately after having taken direction of the 
ministry of foreign affairs and after the dispatch of the 
official answer to your note of October 18, 1918, by which 
you were able to see that we accept all the points and prin- 
ciples laid down by President Wilson in his various decla- 
rations, and are in complete accord with the efforts of 
President Wilson to prevent future wars and to create a 
League of Nations, we have taken preparatory measures 
in order that Austrians and Hungarians may be able, ac- 
cording to their own desire and without being in any way 
hindered, to make a decision as to their future organiza- 
tion and to rule it. 

"Since the accession to power of Emperor-Kimr 
Charles his immovable purpose has been to bring an end 
to the war. More than ever this is the desire of the sov- 
ereign of all the Austro-Hungarian peoples, who ac- 
knowledge that their future destiny can only be accom 



524 WOODROW WILSON 

plished in a pacific world, by being freed from all disturb- 
ances, privations, and sorrows of war. 

''This is why I address you directly, Mr. Secretary of 
State, praying that you will have the goodness to inter- 
vene with the President of the United States in order 
that in the interest of humanity, as in the interest of all 
those who live in Austria-Hungary, an immediate armis- 
tice may be concluded on all fronts and for an overture 
that immediate negotiations for peace will follow. ' ' 

After several days' delay the Germans were forced 
to swallow their pride and appeal to Marshal Foch for a 
cessation of hostilities. The result was that on November 
11, 1918, the last American shell was fired at 11 a. m. and 
the war was over. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
THE ARMISTICE. 

President Wilson appeared before Congress Novem- 
ber 11th and spoke, as follows : 

' ' Gentlemen of the Congress : In these anxious times 
of rapid and stupendous change it will in some degree 
lighten my sense of responsibility to perform in person 
the duty of communicating to you some of the larger cir- 
cumstances of the situation with which it is necessary to 
deal. 

' ' The German authorities who have, at the invitation 
of the supreme war council, been in communication with 
Marshal Foch, have accepted and signed the terms of 
armistice which he was authorized and instructed to com- 
municate to them. Those terms are as follows : 

" * Article 1. Cessation of operations by land and in 
the air six hours after the signature of the armistice. 

" 'Article 2. Immediate evacuation of invaded coun- 
tries, Belgium, France, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemburg, so 
ordered as to be completed within fourteen days from the 
signature of the armistice. German troops which have 
not left the above mentioned territories within the period 
fixed will become prisoners of war. Occupation by the 
allied and United States forces jointly will keep pace with 
evacuation in these areas. All movements of evacuation 
and occupation will be regulated in accordance with a note 
annexed to the stated terms. 

" 'Article 3. Repatriation, beginning at once and to 
be completed within fourteen days of all inhabitants of 
the countries above mentioned, including hostages and 
persons under trial or convicted. 

" 'Article 4. Surrender in good condition by the Ger- 

525 



526 WOODROW WILSON 

man armies of the following equipment: Five thousand 
guns (2,500 heavy, 2,500 field), 30,000 machine guns, 3,000 
minenwerfer (mine throwers), 2,000 airplanes (fighters, 
bombers, first D-73s and night bombing machines). The 
above to be delivered in situ to the allied and the United 
States troops in accordance with the detailed conditions 
laid down in the annexed note. 

"'Article 5. Evacuation by the German armies of 
the countries on the left bank of the Ehine. These coun- 
tries on the left bank of the Ehine shall be administered 
by the local authorities under the control of the allied and 
United States armies of occupation. The occupation of 
these territories will be determined by allied and United 
States garrisons holding the principal crossings of the 
Rhine — Mayence, Coblenz, Cologne — together with 
bridgeheads at these points in thirty kilometer radius on 
the right bank and by garrisons similarly holding the 
strategic points of the regions. A neutral zone shall be 
reserved on the right of the Rhine between the stream and 
a line drawn parallel to it forty kilometers to the east 
from the frontier of Holland to the parallel of Gernsheim 
and as far as practicable a distance of thirty kilometers 
from the east of the stream from this parallel upon the 
Swiss frontier. Evacuation by the enemy of the Rhine 
lands shall be so ordered as to be completed within a fur- 
ther period of eleven days, in all nineteen days after the 
signature of the armistice. All movements of evacuation 
and occupation will be regulated according to the note 
annexed.' " 

Here the President interrupted his reading to remark 
that there evidently had been an error in transmission, as 
the arithmetic was very bad. The "further period" of 
eleven days is in addition to the fourteen days allowed for 
evacuation of invaded countries, making twenty-five days 
given the Germans to get entirely clear of the Rhine lands. 

' ' ' Article 6. In all territory evacuated by the enemy 
there shall be no evacuation of inhabitants ; no damage or 



WOODROW WILSON 527 

harm shall be done to the persons or property of the in- 
habitants. No destruction of any kind to be committed. 
Military establishments of all kinds shall be delivered in- 
tact, as well as military stores of food, munitions, equip- 
ment not removed during the periods fixed for evacuation. 
Stores of food of all kinds for the civil population, cattle, 
etc., shall be left in situ. Industrial establishments shall 
not be impaired in any way and their personnel shall not 
be moved. Roads and means of communication of every 
kind, railroads, waterways, main roads, bridges, tele- 
graphs, telephones, shall be in no manner impaired. 

" 'Article 7. All civil and military personnel at pres- 
ent employed on them shall remain. Five thousand loco- 
motives, 50,000 wagons and 10,000 motor lorries in good 
working order, with all necessary spare parts and fittings, 
shall be delivered to the associated powers within the 
period fixed for the evacuation of Belgium and Luxem- 
burg. The railways of Alsace-Lorraine shall be handed 
over within the same period, together with all prewar per- 
sonnel and material. Further material necessary for the 
working of railways in the country on the left bank of the 
Rhine shall be left in situ. All stores of coal and material 
for the upkeep of permanent ways, signals and repair 
shops left entire in situ and kept in an efficient state by 
Germany during the whole period of armistice. All barges 
taken from the Allies shall be restored to them. A note 
appended regulates the details of these measures. 

" 'Article 8. The German command shall be respon- 
sible for revealing all mines or delay acting fuses dis- 
posed on territory evacuated by the German troops, and 
shall assist in their discovery and destruction. The Ger- 
man command shall also reveal all destructive measures 
that may have been taken (such as poisoning or polluting 
of springs, wells, etc.), under penalty of reprisals. 

" 'Article 9. The right of requisition shall be exer 
cised by the Allies and the United States armies in all 
occupied territory. The upkeep of the troops of occupa- 



528 WOODROW WILSON 

tion in the Rhineland (excluding Alsace-Lorraine) shall 
be charged to the German government. 

" 'Article 10. An immediate repatriation without 
reciprocity according to detailed conditions, which shall be 
fixed, of all allied and United States prisoners of war. 
The allied powers and the United States shall be able to 
dispose of these prisoners as they wish. 

" 'Article 11. Sick and wounded who cannot be re- 
moved from evacuated territory will be cared for by Ger- 
man personnel, who will be left on the spot with the medi- 
cal material required. 

" 'Article 12. All German troops at present in any 
territory which before the war belonged to Russia, 
Roumania or Turkey shall withdraw within the frontiers 
of Germany as they existed on August 1, 1914. 

" 'Article 13. Evacuation by German troops to begin 
at once and all German instructors, prisoners and ci- 
vilians, as well as military agents, now on the territory of 
Russia (as defined before 1914) to be recalled. 

"'Article 14. German troops to cease at once all 
requisitions and seizures and any other undertaking with 
a view to obtaining supplies intended for Germany in 
. Roumania and Russia (as defined on August 1, 1914). 

" 'Article 15. Abandonment of the treaties of Buk- 
harest and Brest-Litovsk and of the supplementary 
treaties. 

" 'Article 16. The Allies shall have free access to the 
territories evacuated by the Germans on their eastern 
frontier, either through Danzig or by the Vistula, in order 
to convey supplies to the populations of those territories 
or for any other purpose. 

1 ' ' Article 17. Unconditional capitulation of all Ger- 
man forces operating in East Africa within one month. 

"'Article 18. Repatriation, without reciprocity, 
within a maximum period of one month, in accordance 
with detailed conditions hereafter to be fixed, of all ci- 
vilians interned or deported who may be citizens of other 



WOODROW WILSON 529 

allied or associated states than those mentioned in clause 
3, paragraph 19, with the reservation that any future 
claims and demands of the Allies and the United States 
of America remain unaffected. 

" 'Article 19. The following financial conditions are 
required : 

" 'Reparation for damage done. While such armis- 
tice lasts no public securities shall be removed by the 
enemy which can serve as a pledge to the Allies for the 
recovery or reparation for war losses. Immediate restitu- 
tion of the cash deposit in the National Bank of Belgium 
and in general immediate return of all documents, specie, 
stocks, shares, paper money, together with plant for the 
issue thereof, touching public or private interests in the 
invaded countries. Restitution of the Russian and Rou- 
manian gold yielded to Germany or taken by that power. 
This gold to be delivered in trust to the Allies until the 
signature of peace. 

"'Article 20. Immediate cessation of all hostilities 
at sea and definite information to be given as to the loca- 
tion and movements of all German ships. Notification to 
be given to neutrals that freedom of navigation in all ter- 
ritorial waters is given to the naval and mercantile 
marines of the allied and associated powers, all questions 
of neutrality being waived. 

" 'Article 21. All naval and mercantile marine pris- 
oners of war of the allied and associated powers in Ger- 
man hands to be returned without reciprocity. 

" 'Article 22. Surrender to the Allies and the United 
States of America of 160 German submarines (including 
all submarine cruisers and mine-laying submarines), with 
their complete armament and equipment in ports which 
will be specified by the Allies and the United States of 
America. All other submarines to be paid off and com- 
pletely disarmed and placed under the supervision of the 
allied powers and the United States of America. 

'"Article 23. The following German surface war- 



530 WOODROW WILSON 

ships which shall be designated by the Allies and the 
United States of America, shall forthwith be disarmed 
and thereafter interned in neutral ports, or, for the want 
of them, in allied ports, to be designated by the Allies and 
the United States of America and placed under the sur- 
veillance of the Allies and the United States of America, 
only caretakers being left on board — namely : Six battle 
cruisers, ten battle ships, eight light cruisers (including 
two mine layers), fifty destroyers of the most modern 
type. All other surface warships (including river craft) 
are to be concentrated in German naval bases to be desig- 
nated by the Allies and the United States of America, and 
are to be paid off and completely disarmed and placed 
under the supervision of the Allies and the United States 
of America. All vessels of the auxiliary fleet (trawlers, 
motor vessels, etc.) are to be disarmed. 

1 "Article 24. The Allies and the United States of 
America shall have the right to sweep up all mine fields 
and obstructions laid by Germany outside German terri- 
torial waters, and the positions of these are to be in- 
dicated. 

" 'Article 25. Freedom of access to and from the 
Baltic to be given to the naval and mercantile marines of 
the allied and associated powers. To secure this, the 
Allies and the United States of America shall be empow- 
ered to occupy all German forts, fortifications, batteries, 
and defense works of all kinds in all the entrances from 
the Cattegat into the Baltic, and to sweep up all mines and 
obstructions within and without German territorial 
waters without any question of neutrality being raised, 
and the positions of all such mines and obstructions are 
to be indicated. 

" 'Article 26. The existing blockade conditions set 
up by the Allies and associated powers are to remain un- 
changed, and all German merchant ships found at sea are 
to remain liable to capture. 

"'Article 27. All naval aircraft are to be concen 



WOODROW WILSON 531 

trated and immobilized in German bases to be specified 
by the Allies and the United States of America. 

" 'Article 28. In evacuating the Belgian coasts and 
ports, Germany shall abandon all merchant ships, tugs, 
lighters, cranes, and all other harbor materials, all ma- 
terials for inland navigation, all aircraft and all materials 
and stores, all arms and armaments, and all stores and 
apparatus of all kinds. 

" 'Article 29. All Black sea ports are to be evacuated 
by Germany; all Russian war vessels of all descriptions 
seized by Germany in the Black sea are to be handed over 
to the Allies and the United States of America ; all neutral 
merchant vessels seized are to be released ; all warlike and 
other materials of all kinds seized in those ports are to be 
returned and German materials as specified in clause 28 
are to be abandoned. 

" 'Article 30. All merchant vessels in German hands 
belonging to the allied and associated powers are to be 
restored in ports to be specified by the Allies and the 
United States of America without reciprocity. 

" 'Article 31. No destruction of ships or of materials 
to be permitted before evacuation, surrender or restora- 
tion. 

" 'Article 32. The German government will notify 
the neutral governments of the world, and particularly 
the governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Hol- 
land, that all restrictions placed on the trading of their 
vessels with the allied and associated countries, whether 
by the German government or by private German inter- 
ests, and whether in return for specific concessions, such 
as the export of shipbuilding materials or not, are im- 
mediately canceled. 

" 'Article 33. No transfers of German merchant ship- 
ping of any description to any neutral flag are to take 
place after signature of the armistice. 

" 'Article 34. The duration of the armistice is to be 
thirty days, with option to extend. During this period, on 



532 WOODROW WILSON 

failure of execution of any of the above clauses, the armis- 
tice may be denounced by one of the contracting parties on 
forty-eight hours' previous notice. 

1 ' ' Article 35. This armistice to be accepted or re- 
fused by Germany within seventy-two hours of notifica- 
tion.' 

' ' The war thus comes to an end ; for, having accepted 
these terms of armistice, it will be impossible for the Ger- 
man command to renew it. 

"It is not now possible to assess the consequences of 
this great consummation. We know only that this tragical 
war, whose consuming flames swept from one nation to 
another until all the world was on fire, is at an end and 
that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it at its 
most critical juncture in such fashion and in such force 
as to contribute in a way of which we are all deeply proud 
to the great result. 

"We know, too, that the object of the war is attained ; 
the object upon which all free men had set their hearts, 
and attained with a sweeping completeness which even 
now we do not realize. 

"Armed imperialism, such as the men conceived who 
were but yesterday the masters of Germany, is at an end, 
its illicit ambitions engulfed in black disaster. Who will 
now seek to revive it? The arbitrary power of the mili- 
tary caste of Germany, which once could secretly and of 
its own single choice disturb the peace of the world, is 
discredited and destroyed. 

"And more than that — much more than that — has 
been accomplished. The great nations which associated 
themselves to destroy it have now definitely united in the 
common purpose to set up such a peace as will satisfy the 
longing of the whole world for disinterested justice, em- 
bodied in settlements which are based upon something 
much better and much more lasting than the selfish com- 
petitive interests of powerful states. 

"There is no longer conjecture as to the objects the 



WOODROW WILSON 533 

victors have in mind. They have a mind in the matter, 
not only, but a heart also. Their avowed and concerted 
purpose is to satisfy and protect the weak as well as to 
accord their just rights to the strong. 

' ' The humane temper and intention of the victorious 
governments has already been manifested in a very prac- 
tical way. Their representatives in the supreme war 
council at Versailles have by unanimous resolution as- 
sured the people of the central empires that everything 
that is possible in the circumstances will be done to supply 
them with food and relieve the distressing want that is in 
so many places threatening their very lives; and steps 
are to be taken immediately to organize these efforts at 
relief in the same systematic manner that they were or- 
ganized in the case of Belgium. 

"By the use of the idle tonnage of the central em- 
pires it ought presently to be possible to lift the fear of 
utter misery from their oppressed populations and set 
their minds and energies free for the great and hazardous 
tasks of political reconstruction which now face them on 
every hand. Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds 
madness and all the ugly distempers that make an ordered 
life impossible. 

"For, with the fall of the ancient governments which 
rested like an incubus upon the people of the central em- 
pires, has come political change not merely, but revolu- 
tion ; and revolution which seems as yet to assume no final 
and ordered form, but to run from one fluid change to 
another, until thoughtful men are forced to ask them- 
selves with what governments, and of what sort, are we 
about to deal in the making of the covenants of peace. 

"With what authority will they meet us and with 
what assurance that their authority will abide and sus- 
tain securely the international arrangements into which 
we are about to enter? There is here matter for no small 
anxiety and misgiving. When peace is made, upon whose 
promises and engagements besides our own is it to rest I 



534 WOODROW WILSON 

"Let us be perfectly frank with ourselves and admit 
that these questions cannot be satisfactorily answered now 
or at once. But the moral is not that there is little hope 
of an early answer that will suffice. It is only that we 
must be patient and helpful and mindful above all of the 
great hope and confidence that lie at the heart of what is 
taking place. 

1 ' Excesses accomplish nothing. Unhappy Eussia has 
furnished abundant recent proof of that. Disorder im- 
mediately defeats itself. If excesses should occur, if dis- 
order should for a time raise its head, a sober second 
thought will follow and a day of constructive action if 
we help and do not hinder. 

"The present and all that it holds belongs to the 
nations and the peoples who preserve their self-control 
and the orderly processes of their governments; the 
future to those who prove themselves the true friends of 
mankind. 

1 ' To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary 
conquest ; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is 
to make permanent conquest. I am confident that the 
nations that have learned the discipline of freedom and 
that have settled with self-possession to its ordered prac- 
tice are now about to make conquest of the world by the 
sheer power of example and of friendly helpfulness. 

' ' The peoples who have but just come out from under 
the yoke of arbitrary government and who are now com- 
ing at last into their freedom will never find the treasures 
of liberty they are in search of if they look for them by 
the light of the torch. They will find that every pathway 
that is stained with the blood of their own brothers leads 
to the wilderness, not to the seat of their hope. 

"They are now face to face with their initial tests. 
We must hold the light steady until they find themselves. 
And in the meantime, if it be possible, we must establish a 
peace that will justly define their place among the nations, 
remove all fear of their neighbors and of their former 



WOODROW WILSON 



JoD 



masters, and enable them to live in security and content 
ment when they have set their own affairs in order. 

"I for one do not doubt their purpose or their ca- 
pacity. There are some happy signs that they know and 
will choose the way of self-control and peaceful accommo- 
dation. If they do we shall put our aid at their disposal 
in every way that we can. If they do not we must await 
with patience and sympathy the awakening and recovers 
that will assuredly come at last. " 

Immediately after the signing of the armistice terms 
Dr. Solf, the German foreign secretary, sent the following 
appeal to the American secretary of state, Robert Lan- 
sing: 

' ' The armistice being concluded, the German govern- 
ment requests the President of the United States to ar- 
range for the opening of peace negotiations. 

"For the purpose of their acceleration the German 
government proposes first of all to take into view the con- 
clusion of a preliminary peace and asks for a communica- 
tion as to what place and at what time the negotiations 
might begin. 

"As there is a pressing danger of famine, the Ger- 
man government is particularly anxious for the negotia- 
tions to begin immediately. ' ' 

To the foregoing appeal Secretary Lansing returned 
the following reply through the Swiss legation, Novem- 
ber 14th: 

"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yonr 
note of today, transmitting to the President the text of 
a cable inquiring whether this government is ready to 
send foodstuffs into Germany without delay if public 
order is maintained in Germany and an equitable disl ribu- 
tion of food is guaranteed. 

"I should be grateful if you would transmit the Pol 
lowing reply to the German government : 

" 'At a joint session of the two houses of Cod 
on November 11 the President of the United States an- 



536 WOODROW WILSON 

nounced that the representatives of the associated gov- 
ernments in the supreme war council at Versailles have, 
by unanimous resolution, assured the peoples of the cen- 
tral empires that everything that is possible in the circum- 
stances will be done to supply them with food and relieve 
the distressing want that is in so many places threatening 
their very lives ; and that steps are to be taken immediate- 
ly to organize these efforts at relief in the same systematic 
manner that they were organized in the case of Belgium. 

" 'Furthermore, the President expressed the opinion 
that, by the use of the idle tonnage of the central empires, 
it ought presently to be possible to lift the fear of utter 
misery from their oppressed population and set their 
minds and energies free for the great and hazardous tasks 
of political reconstruction which now face them on every 
hand. 

" 'Accordingly, the President now directs me to state 
that he is ready to consider favorably the supplying of 
foodstuffs to Germany and to take up the matter im- 
mediately with the allied governments, provided he can 
be assured that public order is being and will continue to 
be maintained in Germany, and that an equitable distribu- 
tion of food can be clearly guaranteed.' 

"Accept, sir the renewed assurances of my highest 
consideration, 

"ROBERT LANSING." 



CHAPTER XXXII 
THE VICTORY MESSAGE. 

President Wilson appeared in congress on December 
2nd, 1918, and delivered his sixth annual message. It 
follows : 

Gentlemen of the Congress: "The year that has 
elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfill my consti- 
tutional duty to give to the congress from time to time 
information on the state of the union has been so crowded 
with great events, great processes and great results, that 
I cannot hope to give you an adequate picture of its trans- 
actions or of the far reaching changes which have been 
wrought in the life of our nation and of the world. You 
have yourselves witnessed these things, as I have. It is 
too soon to assess them : and we who stand in the midst of 
them and are part of them are less qualified than men of 
another generation will be to say what they mean or even 
what they have been. 

1 ' But some great outstanding facts are unmistakable 
and constitute in a sense part of the public business with 
which it is our duty to deal. To state them is to set the 
stage for the legislative and executive action which must 
grow out of them and which we have yet to shape and 
determine. 

"A year ago we had sent 143,918 men overseas. Since 
then we have sent 1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each 
month, the number in fact rising in May last to 245,951, in 
June to 278,760, in July to 307,182 and continuing to reach 
similar figures in August and September— in August 289,- 
570 and in September 257,438. No such movement of 
troops ever took place before across 3,000 miles of sea, 

537 



538 WOODROW WILSON 

followed by adequate equipment and supplies, and carried 
safely through extraordinary dangers of attack — dangers 
which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard 
against. In all this movement only 758 men were lost by 
enemy attacks — 630 of whom were upon a single British 
transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands. 

1 i I need not tell you what lay back of this great move- 
ment of men and material. It is not invidious to say that 
back of it lay a supporting organization of the industries 
of the country and all its productive activities more com- 
plete, more thorough in method and effective in results, 
more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort, than 
any other great belligerent had ever been able to effect. 

' ' We profited greatly by the experience of the nations 
which had already been engaged for nearly three years 
in the exigent and exacting business, their every resource 
and every executive proficiency taxed to the utmost. We 
were the pupils. But we learned quickly and acted with a 
promptness and a readiness of co-operation that justify 
our great pride that we were able to serve the world with 
unparalleled energy and quick accomplishment. 

"But it is not the physical scale and executive effi- 
ciency of preparation, supply, equipment and dispatch, 
that I would dwell upon, but the mettle and quality of the 
officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept 
the seas and the spirit of the nation that stood behind 
them. No soldiers or sailors ever proved themselves more 
quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted themselves 
with more splendid courage and achievement when put to 
the test. Those of us who played some part in directing 
the great processes by which the war was pushed irre- 
sistibly forward to the final triumph may now forget all 
that and delight our thoughts with the story of what our 
men did. 

"Their officers understood the grim and exacting 
task they had undertaken and performed with audacity, 
efficiency and unhesitating courage, that touch the story 



WOODROW WILSON 539 

of convoy and battle with imperishable distinction at 
every turn, whether the enterprise were great or small — 
from their chiefs. Pershing and Sims, down to the young- 
est lieutenant; and their men were worthy of them — such 
men as hardly need to be commanded and go to their terri- 
ble adventure blithely and with the quick intelligence of 
those who know just what it is they would accomplish. 

' ' I am proud to be the fellow countryman of men of 
such stuff and valor. Those of us who stayed at home did 
our duty : the war could not have been won or the gallant 
men who fought it given their opportunity to win it other- 
wise; but for many a long day we shall think ourselves 
1 accurs 'd we were not there, and hold our manhoods cheap 
while any speaks that fought ' with these at St. Mihiel or 
Thierry. The memory of those days of triumphant battle 
will go with these fortunate men to their graves : and each 
will have his favorite memory. ' Old men forget ; yet all 
shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what 
feats he did that day. ' 

"What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude 
is that our men went in force into the line of battle just at 
the critical moment, when the whole fate of the world 
seemed to hang in the balance, and threw their fresh 
strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the 
whole tide and sweep of the fateful struggle — turn it once 
for all, so that thenceforth it was back, back, back, for 
their enemies, always back, never again forward ! After 
that it was only a scant four months before the command- 
ers of the central empires knew themselves beaten : and 
now their very empires are in liquidation! 

"And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the na- 
tion was! What unity of purpose, what untiring zeal! 
What elevation of purpose ran through all its Bplendid 
display of strength, its untiring accomplishment ! I have 
said that those of us who stayed at home to do the work 
of organization and supply will always wish that we had 
been with the men whom we sustained by our labor; but 



540 WOODROW WILSON 

we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing 
to be here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside 
from every private interest of their own and devoted the 
whole of their trained capacity to the tasks that supplied 
the sinews of the whole great undertaking ! The patriot- 
ism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and 
distinguished capacity that marked their toilsome labors, 
day after day, month after month, have made them fit 
mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the 
sea. 

' 'And not the men here in Washington only. They 
have but directed the vast achievement. Throughout in- 
numerable factories, upon innumerable farms, in the 
depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, 
wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and 
prepared, in the shipyards, on the railways, at the docks, 
on the sea, in every labor that was needed to sustain the 
battle lines, men have vied with each other to do their part 
and do it well. They can look any man at arms in the 
face, and say we also strove to win and gave the best that 
was in us to make our fleets and armies sure of their tri- 
umph! 

"And what shall we say of the women — of their in- 
stant intelligence, quickening every task that they 
touched : their capacity for organization and co-operation, 
which gave their action discipline and enhanced the effec- 
tiveness of everything they attempted ; their aptitude at 
tasks to which they had never before set their hands; 
their utter self-sacrifice alike in what they did and what 
they gave? Their contribution to the great result is be- 
yond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the 
annals of American womanhood. 

' ' The least tribute we can pay them is to make them 
the equals of men in political right as they have proved 
themselves their equals in every field of practical work 
they have entered, whether for themselves or for their 
country. These great days of completed achievement 



WOODROW WILSON 541 

would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice. 
Besides the immense practical services they have ren- 
dered, the women of the country have been the moving 
spirits in the systematic economies by which our people 
have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples 
of the world and the armies upon every front with food 
and everything else that we had that might serve the com- 
mon cause. The details of such a story can never be 
fully written, but we carry them at our hearts and thank 
God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of such. 

" And now we are sure of the great triumph for which 
every sacrifice was made. It has come, come in its com 
pletenes.s, and with the pride and inspiration of these days 
of achievement quick within us we turn to the tasks of 
peace again — peace secure against the violence of irre- 
sponsible monarchs and ambitious military coteries — and 
make ready for a new order, for new foundations of jus- 
tice and fair dealing. 

"We are about to give order and organization to this 
peace not only for ourselves but for the other peoples of 
the world as well, so far as they will suffer us to serve 
them. It is international justice that we seek, not domes- 
tic safety merely. 

1 ' Our thoughts have dwelt of late upon Europe, upon 
Asia, upon the near and the far east, very little upon the 
acts of peace and accommodation that wait to be per- 
formed at our own doors. While we are adjusting our 
relations with the rest of the world, is it not of capital 
importance that we should clear away all grounds of mis- 
understanding with our immediate neighbors and give 
proof of the friendship we really feel? I hope that the 
members of the senate will permit me to speak once more 
of the unratified treaty of friendship and adjustment with 
the republic of Columbia. I very earnestly urge npon 
them an early and favorable action upon that vital matter. 
I believe that they will feel with me that the Btage of 
affairs is now set for such action as will be not only just 



542 WOODROW WILSON 

but generous and in the spirit of the new age upon which 
we have so happily entered. 

"So far as our domestic affairs are concerned, the 
problem of our return to peace is a problem of economic 
and industrial readjustment. That problem is less seri- 
ous for us than it may turn out to be for the nations which 
have suffered the disarrangements and the losses of war 
longer than we. Our people, moreover, do not wait to be 
coached and led. They know their own business, are quick 
and resourceful at every readjustment, definite in purpose 
and self-reliant in action. 

"Any leading strings we might seek to put them in 
would speedily become hopelessly tangled, because they 
would pay no attention to them and go their own way. All 
that we can do as their legislative and executive servants 
is to mediate the process of change here, there and else- 
where as we may. I have heard much counsel as to the 
plans that should be formed and personally conducted to a 
happy consummation, but from no quarter have I seen 
any general scheme of 'reconstruction' emerge which I 
thought it likely we could force our spirited business men 
and self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy and 
obedience. 

"While the war lasted we set up many agencies by 
which to direct the industries of the country in the services 
it was necessary for them to render, by which to make sure 
of an abundant supply of the materials needed, by which 
to check undertakings that could for the time be dis- 
pensed with and stimulate those that were most service- 
able in war, by which to gain for the purchasing depart- 
ments of the government a certain control over the prices 
of essential articles and materials by which to re- 
strain trade with alien enemies, make the most of 
the available shipping, and systematize financial trans- 
actions, both public and private, so that there would be no 
unnecessary conflict or confusion, by which, in short, to 
put every material energy of the country in harness to 



WOODROW WILSON 543 

draw the common load and make of us one team in the 
accomplishment of a great task. 

"But the moment we knew the armistice to have been 
signed we took the harness off. Raw materials upon 
which the government had kept its hand for fear there 
should not be enough for the industries that supplied the 
armies have been released and put into the general market 
again. Great industrial plants whose whole output and 
machinery had been taken over for the uses of the gov- 
ernment have been set free to return to the uses to which 
they were put before the war. It has not been possible to 
remove so readily or so quickly the control of foodstuffs 
and of shipping, because the world has still to be fed from 
our granaries and the ships are still needed to send 
supplies to our men overseas and to bring the men back 
as fast as the disturbed conditions on the other side of the 
water permit ; but even these restraints are being relaxed 
as much as possible and more and more as the weeks go by. 

"Never before have there been agencies in existence 
in this country which knew so much of the field of supply, 
of labor and of industry as the war industries board, the 
war trade board, the labor department, the food adminis- 
tration and the fuel administration have known since their 
labors became thoroughly systematized; and they have 
not been isolated agencies; they have been directed 
by men who represented the permanent depart- 
ments of the government and so have been the centers of 
unified and co-operative action. It has been the policy of 
the executive, therefore, since the armistice was assured 
(which is in effect a complete submission of the enemy) 
to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal of the 
business men of the country and to offer their intelligenl 
mediation at every point and in every matter where it was 
desired. It is surprising how fast the process of return to 
a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since I In- 
fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that 
may be instituted and any aid that may be offered. It will 



544 WOODROW WILSON 

not be easy to direct it any better than it will direct itself. 
The American business man is of quick initiative. 

"The ordinary and normal processes of private ini- 
tiative will not, however, provide immediate employment 
for all of the men of our returning armies. Those who are 
of trained capacity, those who are skilled workmen, those 
who have acquired familiarity with established busi- 
nesses, those who are ready and willing to go to the farms, 
all those whose aptitudes are known or will be sought out 
by employers will find no difficulty, it is safe to say, in 
finding place and employment. But there will be others 
who will be at a loss where to gain a livelihood unless 
pains are taken to guide them and put them in the way of 
work. There will be a large floating residuum of labor 
which should not be left wholly to shift for itself. It seems 
to me important, therefore, that the development of public 
works of every sort should be promptly resumed, in order 
that opportunities should be created for unskilled labor 
in particular, and that plans should be made for such de- 
velopments of our unused lands arid our natural resources 
as we have hitherto lacked stimulation to undertake. 

"I particularly direct your attention to the very prac- 
tical plans which the secretary of the interior has devel- 
oped in his annual report and before your committees for 
the reclamation of arid, swamp and cut over lands which 
might, if the states were willing and able to co-operate, 
redeem some 300,000,000 acres of land for cultivation. 
There are said to be 15,000,000 or 20,000,000 acres of land 
in the west, at present arid, for whose reclamation water 
is available, if properly conserved. There are about 230,- 
000,000 acres from which the forests have been cut, but 
which have never yet been cleared for the plow and which 
lie waste and desolate. These lie scattered all over the 
union. And there are nearly 80,000,000 acres of land that 
lie under swamps or subject to periodical overflow, or are 
too wet for anything but grazing, which it is perfectly 
feasible to drain and protect and redeem. The congress 



WOODROW WILSON 545 

can at once direct thousands of returning soldiers to the 
reclamation of the arid lands which it has already under- 
taken if it will but enlarge the plans and the appropria- 
tions which it has intrusted to the department of the in- 
terior. It is possible in dealing with our unused land to 
effect a great rural and agricultural development which 
will afford the best sort of opportunity to men who want 
to help themselves ; and the secretary of the interior has 
thought the possible methods out in a way which is worthy 
of your most friendly attention. 

"I have spoken of the control which must yet for a 
while, perhaps for a long while, be exercised over ship- 
ping because of the priority of service to which our forces 
overseas are entitled and which should also be accorded 
the shipments which are to save recently liberated peoples 
from starvation and many devastated regions from per- 
manent ruin. May I not say a special word about the 
needs of Belgium and northern France? No sums of 
money paid by way of indemnity will serve of themselves 
to save them from hopeless disadvantage for years to 
come. Something more must be done than merely find the 
money. If they had money and raw materials in abund- 
ance tomorrow they could not resume their place in the 
industry of the world — the very important place they held 
before the flame of war swept across them. Many of their 
factories are razed to the ground. Much of their machin- 
ery is destroyed or has been taken away. Their people 
are scattered and many of their best workmen are dead. 
Their markets will be taken by others if they are not in 
some special way assisted to rebuild their factories and 
replace their lost instruments of manufacture. They 
should not be left to the vicissitudes of the sharp compe- 
tition for materials and for industrial facilities which is 
now to set in. I hope, therefore, that the congress will not 
be unwilling, if it should become necessary, to grant to 
some such agency as the war trade board the right to 
establish priorities of export and supply for the benefit 



546 WOODROW WILSON 

of these people whom we have been so happy to assist in 
saving from the German terror and whom we must not 
now thoughtlessly leave to shift for themselves in a piti- 
less competitive market. 

"For the steadying and facilitation of our own do- 
mestic business readjustments nothing is more import- 
ant than the immediate determination of the taxes that 
are to be levied for 1918, 1919, and 1920. As much of 
the burden of taxation must be lifted from business as 
sound methods of financing the government will permit, 
and those who conduct the great essential industries of 
the country must be told as exactly as possible what obli- 
gations to the government they will be expected to meet 
in the years immediately ahead of them. It will be of 
serious consequence to the country to delay removing all 
uncertainties in this matter a single day longer than the 
right processes of debate justify. It is idle to talk of 
successful and confident business reconstruction before 
those uncertainties are resolved. 

"If the war had continued it would have been neces- 
sary to raise at least $8,000,000,000 by taxation, payable 
in the year 1919 ; but the war has ended and I agree with 
the secretary of the treasury that it will be safe to reduce 
the amount to $6,000,000,000. An immediate rapid de- 
cline in the expenses of the government is not to be looked 
for. Contracts made for war supplies will, indeed, be 
rapidly canceled and liquidated, but their immediate 
liquidation will make heavy drains on the treasury for 
the months just ahead of us. 

"The maintenance of our forces on the other side of 
the sea is still necessary. A considerable proportion of 
those forces must remain in Europe during the period of 
occupation, and those which are brought home will be 
transported and demobilized at heavy expense for months 
to come. The interest on our war debt must, of course, 
be paid, and provision made for the retirement of the 
obligations of the government which represent it. But 



WOODROW WILSON 547 

these demands will, of course, fall much below whal a 
continuation of military operations would have entailed 
and $6,000,000,000 should suffice to supply a sound foun- 
dation for the financial operations of the year. 

"I entirely concur with the secretary of the treasury 
in recommending that the $2,000,000,000 needed in ad- 
dition to the $4,000,000,000 provided by existing law be 
obtained from the profits which have accrued and shall 
accrue from war contracts and distinctively war business, 
but that these taxes be confined to the war profits accru- 
ing in 1918 or in 1919 from business originating in war 
contracts. I urge your acceptance of this recommendation 
that provision be made now, not subsequently, that the 
taxes to be paid in 1920 should be reduced from $6,000,- 
000,000 to $4,000,000,000. 

1 'Any arrangements less definite than these would 
add elements of doubt and confusion to the critical period 
of industrial readjustment through which the country 
must now immediately pass and which no true friend of 
the nation's essential business interests can afford to be 
responsible for creating or prolonging. Clearly de- 
termined conditions, clearly and simply charted, are in- 
dispensable to the economic revival and rapid industrial 
development which may confidenly to expected if we act 
now and sweep all interrogation points away. 

"I take it for granted that the congress will carry 
out the naval program which was undertaken before we 
entered the war. The secretary of the navy has sub- 
mitted to your committees for authorization that part of 
the program which covers the building plans of the next 
three years. These plans have been prepared along the 
lines and in accordance with the policy which the congress 
established, not under the exceptional conditions of the 
war, but with the intention of adhering to a definite 
method of development for the navy. I earnestly recom- 
mend the uninterrupted pursuit of that policy. It would 



548 WOODROW WILSON 

clearly be unwise for us to attempt to adjust our pro- 
grams to a future world policy as yet undetermined. 

"The question which causes the greatest concern is 
the question of the policy to be adopted toward the rail- 
roads. I frankly turn to you for counsel upon it. I have 
no confident judgment of my own. I do not see how any 
thoughtful man can have who knows anything of the com- 
plexity of the problem. It is a problem which must be 
studied, studied immediately and studied without bias 
or prejudice. Nothing can be gained by becoming par- 
tisans of any particular plan of settlement. 

"It was necessary that the administration of the 
railways should be taken over by the government so long 
as the war lasted. It would have been impossible other- 
wise to establish and carry through under a single di- 
rection the necessary priorities of shipments. It would 
have been impossible otherwise to combine maximum pro- 
duction at the factories and mines and farms with the 
maximum possible car supply to take the products to the 
ports and markets ; impossible to route troop shipments 
and freight shipments without regard to the advantage 
or disadvantage of the roads employed; impossible to 
subordinate, when necessary, all questions of conven- 
ience to the public necessity ; impossible to give the neces- 
sary financial support to the roads from the public treas- 
ury. But all these necessities have now been served and 
the question is, What is best for the railroads and for the 
public in the future? 

" Exceptional circumstances and exceptional methods 
of administration were not needed to convince us that the 
railroads were not equal to the immense tasks of trans- 
portation imposed upon them by the rapid and contin- 
uous development of the industries of the country. We 
knew that already. And we knew that they were un- 
equal to it, partly because their co-operation was ren- 
dered impossible by law and their competition made ob- 
ligatory, so that it has been impossible to assign to them 



WOODROW WILSON 549 

severally the traffic which best could be carried by their 
respective lines in the interest of expedition and national 
economy. 

"We may hope, I believe, for the formal conclusion 
of the war by treaty by the time spring has come. The 
twenty-one months to which the present control of the 
railways is limited after formal proclamation of peace 
shall have been made will run at the farthest, I take it 
for granted, only to the January of 1921. The full 
equipment of the railways which the federal administra- 
tion had planned could not be completed within any such 
period. The present law does not permit the use of the 
revenues of the several roads for the execution of such 
plans except by formal contract with their directors, some 
of whom will consent, while some will not, and therefore 
does not afford sufficient authority to undertake improve- 
ments upon the scale upon which it would be necessary to 
undertake them. Every approach to this difficult sub- 
ject matter of decision brings us face to face, therefore, 
with this unanswered question: What is right that we 
should do with the railroads, in the interest of the pub- 
lic and in fairness to their owners? 

"Let me say at once that I have no answer ready. 
The only thing that is perfectly clear to me is that it is 
not fair either to the public or to the owners of the rail- 
roads to leave the question unanswered and that it will 
presently become my duty to relinquish control of the 
roads even before the expiration of the statutory period, 
unless there should appear some clear prospect in the 
meantime of a legislative solution. Their release would 
at least produce one element of a solution, namely, cer- 
tainty and a quick stimulation of private initiative. 

"I believe that it will be serviceable for me to set 
forth as explicitly as possible the alternative courses that 
lie open to our choice. We can simply release tin* roads 
and go back to the old conditions of private management, 
unrestricted competition and multiform regulation by 



550 WOODROW WILSON 

both state and federal authorities, or we can go to the op- 
posite extreme and establish complete government con- 
trol, accompanied, if necessary, by actual government 
ownership; or we can adopt an intermediate course of 
modified private control under a more unified and affirma- 
tive public regulation and under such alterations of the 
law as will permit wasteful conpetition to be avoided and 
a considerable degree of unification of administration to 
be effected, as, for example, by regional corporations 
under which the railways of a definable area would be 
in effect combined in single systems. 

"The one conclusion that I am ready to state with 
confidence is that it would be a disservice alike to the 
country and to the owners of the railroads to return to 
the old conditions unmodified. Those are conditions of 
restraint without development. There is nothing affirm- 
ative or helpful about them. What the country chiefly 
needs is that all its means of transportation should be 
developed, its railways, its waterways, its highways, and 
its countryside roads. Some new element of policy, there- 
fore, is absolutely necessary — necessary for the service 
of the public, necessary for the release of credit to those 
who are administering the railways, necessary for the 
protection of their security holders. The old policy may 
be changed much or little, but surely it can not wisely be 
left as it was. I hope that the congress will have a com- 
plete and impartial study of the whole problem instituted 
at once and prosecuted as rapidly as possible. I stand 
ready and anxious to release the roads from the present 
control and I must do so at a very early date if by waiting 
until the statutory limit of time is reached I shall be mere- 
ly prolonging the period of doubt and uncertainty, which 
is hurtful to every interest concerned. 

"I welcome this occasion to announce to the con- 
gress my purpose to join in Paris the representatives of 
the governments with which we have been associated in 
the war against the central empires for the purpose of 



WOODROW WILSON 551 

discussing with them the main features of the treaty of 
peace. I realize the great inconveniences that will attend 
my leaving the country, particularly at this time, but 
the conclusion that it was my paramount duty to go has 
been forced upon me by considerations which I hope will 
seem as conclusive to you as they have seemed to me. 

1 ' I shall be in close touch with you and with affairs 
on this side the water, and you will know all that I do. 
At my request the French and English governments have 
absolutely removed the censorship of cable news which 
until within a fortnight they had maintained, and there 
is now no censorship whatever exercised at this end except 
upon attempted trade communications with enemy coun- 
tries. 

"It has been necessary to keep an open wire con- 
stantly available between Paris and the department of 
state and another between France and the department 
of war. In order that this might be done with the last 
possible interference with the other uses of the cables, 
I have temporarily taken over the control of both cables 
in order that they may be used as a single system. I did 
so at the advice of the most experienced cable officials, 
and I hope that the results will justify my hope that the 
news of the next few months may pass with the utmost 
freedom and with the least possible delay from each side 
of the sea to the other. 

"May I not hope, gentlemen of the congress, that in 
the delicate tasks I shall have to perform on the other 
side of the sea, in my efforts truly and faithfully to in- 
terpret the principles and purposes of the country we love, 
I may have the encouragement and the added strength of 
your united support? I realize the magnitude and diffi- 
culty of the duty I am undertaking; I am poignantly 
aware of its grave responsibilities. 

"I am the servant of the nation. I can have no 
private thought or purpose of my own in performing such 
an errand. I go to give the best that is in me to the com- 



552 WOODROW WILSON 

mon settlements which I must now assist in arriving at 
in conference with the other working heads of the asso- 
ciated governments. I shall count upon your friendly 
countenance and encouragement. 

"I shall not be inaccessible. The cables and the 
wireless will render me available for any counsel or serv- 
ice you may desire of me, and I shall be happy in the 
thought that I am constantly in touch with the weighty 
matters of domestic policy with which we shall have to 
deal. I shall make my absence as brief as possible and 
shall hope to return with the happy assurance that it has 
been possible to translate into action the great ideals for 
which America has striven.' ' 




THE PRESIDENT VISITS LONDON, ENGLAND. 




THOUSANDS GREETING THE PRESIDENT IN PARIS, 

FRANCE. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 

The Peace Conference met for the first time in Paris 
in January, 1919. It was the most notable gathering of 
national leaders the world had ever seen, and the ques- 
tions to be decided were more momentous than any in the 
previous history of the human race. 

The dominating figure of the conference was Presi- 
dent Wilson, who had decided that the issues at stake 
demanded his personal attention. He went to Paris, car- 
rying with him a draft of the Covenant of the League of 
Nations, on which he determined the future peace of the 
world should rest. 

The early days of the conference were devoted by the 
delegates to formulating their demands and completing 
preparations for considering President Wilson's Four- 
teen Points. 

The President visited London and Rome while 
abroad. King George of England and King Victor Em- 
manuel of Italy met him in person on his arrival. His 
passage through the streets in both these cities was in each 
case a triumphal procession. Thousands of men, women 
and children lined the streets and threw flowers on the 
presidential carriage as it passed. Mixed with the throngs 
were battle-worn soldiers of the allied armies. 

After his return to Paris, President Wilson convened 
the League of Nations Committee. It was composed of 
Lloyd George, representing Great Britain; Clemenceau, 
representing France; Orlando, representing Italy; Vis- 
count Ishii, representing Japan ; President Wilson, rep- 
resenting the United States ; and representatives of five 
other nations. 

557 



558 WOODROW WILSON 

The Committee of the Big Four went into session at 
once upon the arrival of the President. It was believed 
the peace treaty would come up first, but President Wilson 
insisted that the plans for the League of Nations should be 
drafted immediately. He stated that a lasting peace would 
have to be made on a basis of justice for all nations, and 
that a means of enforcing the peace would be pressing 
while there was danger of Germany rejecting the armistice 
and proceeding to war again. 

The full text of the covenant was announced on Feb- 
ruary 14, 1919. It follows : 

Preamble. — In order to promote international coop- 
eration and to secure international peace and security by 
the acceptance of obligations not through resort to war, 
by the prescription of open, just and honorable relations 
between nations, by the firm establishment of the under- 
standings of international law as the actual rule of con- 
duct among governments, and by the maintenance of jus- 
tice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in 
the dealings of organized people with one another, the 
powers signatory to this covenant adopt this constitution 
of the League of Nations : 

Article I 

The action of the high contracting parties under the 
terms of this covenant shall be effected thru the instru- 
mentality of a meeting of a body of delegates representing 
the high contracting parties, of meetings at more frequent 
intervals of an executive council, and of a permanent in- 
ternational secretariat to be established at the seat of the 
league. 

Article II 

Meetings of the body of delegates shall be held at 
stated intervals and from time to time as occasion may 
require for the purpose of dealing with matters within the 
sphere of action of the league. Meetings of the body of 



WOODROW WILSON 559 

delegates shall be held at the seat of the league or at such 
other places as may be found convenient, and shall consist 
of representatives of the high contracting parties. Each 
of the high contracting parties shall have one vote, but 
may have not more than three representatives. 

Article III 

The executive council shall consist of representatives 
of the United States of America, the British empire, 
France, Italy and Japan, together with representatives of 
four other states, members of the league. The selection of 
these four states shall be made by the body of delegates on 
such principles and in such manner as they think fit. 
Pending the appointment of these representatives of the 
other states, representatives of (blank left for names) 
shall be members of the executive council. 

Meetings of the council shall be held from time to time 
as occasion may require and at least once a year at what- 
ever place may be decided on, or, failing any such decision, 
at the seat of the league, and any matter within the sphere 
of action of the league or affecting the peace of the world 
may be dealt with at such meetings. 

Invitations shall be sent to any power to attend a 
meeting of the council at which such matters directly 
affecting its interests are to be discussed, and no decision 
taken at any meeting will be binding on such powers unless 
so invited. 

Article IV 

All matters of procedure at meetings of the body of 
delegates or the executive council, including the appoint- 
ment of committees to investigate particular matters, 
shall be regulated by the body of delegates or the executive 
council and may be decided by a majority of the states 
represented at the meeting. 

The first meeting of the body of delegates and the 



560 WOODROW WILSON 

executive council shall be summoned by the President of 
the United States of America. 

Article V 

The permanent secretariat of the league shall be es- 
tablished at (blank), which shall constitute the seat of the 
league. The secretariat shall comprise such secretaries 
and staff as may be required, under the general direction 
and control of a secretary-general of the league, who shall 
be chosen by the executive council ; the secretariat shall be 
appointed by the secretary-general, subject to confirma- 
tion by the executive council. 

The secretary-general shall act in that capacity at all 
meetings of the body of delegates or of the executive coun- 
cil. 

The expenses of the secretariat shall be borne by the 
states members of the league in accordance with the ap- 
portionment of the expenses of the international bureau 
of the universal postal union. 

Akticle VI 

Representatives of the high contracting parties and 
officials of the league when engaged in the business of the 
league shall enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities, 
and the buildings occupied by the league or its officials, or 
by representatives attending its meetings, shall enjoy the 
benefits of extra-territoriality. 

Article VII 

Admission to the league of states not signatories to 
the covenant and not named in the protocol as states to be 
invited to adhere to the covenant requires the assent of 
not less than two-thirds of the states represented in the 
body of delegates, and shall be limited to fully self-govern- 
ing countries, including dominions and colonies. 



WOODROW WILSON 561 

No state shall be admitted to the league unless it is 
able to give effective guaranties of its sincere intention 
to observe its international obligations, and unless it shall 
conform to such principles as may be prescribed by the 
league in regard to its naval and military forces and 
armaments. 

Article VIII 

The high contracting parties recognize the principle 
that the maintenance of peace will require the reduction 
of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with 
national safety and the enforcement by common action of 
international obligations, having special regard to the 
geographical situation and circumstances of each state, 
and the executive council shall formulate plans for effect- 
ing such reduction. The executive council shall also de- 
termine for the consideration and action of the several 
governments what military equipment and armament is 
fair and reasonable in proportion to the scale of forces 
laid down in the program of disarmament ; and these lim- 
its, when adopted, shall not be exceeded without the per- 
mission of the executive council. 

The high contracting parties agree that the manufac- 
ture by private enterprise of munitions and implements 
of war lends- itself to grave objections, and direct the 
executive council to advise how the evil effects attendant 
upon such manufacture can be prevented, due regard 
being had to the necessities of those countries which are 
not able to manufacture for themselves the munitions and 
implements of war necessary for their safety. 

The high contracting parties undertake in no way to 
conceal from each other the condition of such of their in- 
dustries as are capable of being adapted to warlike pur- 
poses or the scale of their armaments, and agree that there 
shall be full and frank interchange of information as to 
their military and naval programs. 



562 WOODROW WILSON 

Article IX 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to ad- 
vise the league on the execution of the provisions of 
Article VIII and on military and naval questions gen- 
erally. 

Article X 

The high contracting parties shall undertake to re- 
spect and preserve, as against external aggression, the 
territorial integrity and existing political independence of 
all states members of the league. In case of any such ag- 
gression, or in case of any threat or danger of such aggres- 
sion, the executive council shall advise upon the means by 
which the obligation shall be fulfilled. 

Article XI 

Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affect- 
ing any of the high contracting parties or not, is hereby 
declared a matter of concern to the league, and the high 
contracting parties reserve the right to take any action 
that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the 
peace of nations. 

It is hereby also declared and agreed to be the friendly 
right of each of the high contracting parties to draw the 
attention of the body of delegates or of the executive coun- 
cil to any circumstances affecting international inter- 
course which threaten to disturb international peace or the 
good understanding between nations upon which peace 
depends. 

Article XII 

The high contracting parties agree that, should dis- 
putes arise between them which cannot be adjusted by the 
ordinary processes of diplomacy, they will in no case re- 
sort to war without previously submitting the questions 
and matters involved either to arbitration or to inquiry by 
the executive council, and until three months after the 



WOODROW WILSON 563 

award by the arbitrators, or a recommendation by the 
executive council ; and that they will not even then resort 
to war as against a member of the league which complies 
with the award of the arbitrators or the recommendation 
of the executive council. 

In any case, under this article, the award of the arbi- 
trators shall be made within a reasonable time and the 
recommendation of the executive council shall be made 
within six months after the submission of the dispute. 

Akticle XIII 

The high contracting parties agree that whenever any 
dispute or difficulty shall arise between them which they 
recognize to be suitable for submission to arbitration and 
which cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy, they 
will submit the whole matter to arbitration. For this pur- 
pose the court of arbitration to which the case is referred 
shall be the court agreed on by the parties or stipulated in 
any convention existing between them. The high contract- 
ing parties agree that they will carry out in full good faith 
any award that may be rendered. In the event of any 
failure to carry out the award, the executive council shall 
propose what steps can best be taken to give effect thereto. 

Akticle XIV 

The executive council shall formulate plans for the 
establishment of a permanent court of international jus- 
tice and this court shall, when established, be competent 
to hear and determine any matter which the parties recog- 
nize as suitable for submission to it for arbitration under 
the foregoing article. 

Article XV 

If there should arise between states members of the 
league any disputes likely to lead to rupture, which is not 
submitted to arbitration as above, the high contracting 



564 WOODROW WILSON 

parties agree that they will refer the matter to the 
executive council; either party to the dispute may give 
notice of the existence of the dispute to the secretary-gen- 
eral, who will make all necessary arrangements for a full 
investigation and consideration thereof. For this purpose 
the parties agree to communicate to the secretary-general, 
as promptly as possible, statements of their case with all 
the relevant facts and papers, and the executive council 
may forthwith direct the publication thereof. Where the 
efforts of the council lead to the settlement of the dispute 
a statement shall be published indicating the nature of the 
dispute and the terms of settlement, together with such 
explanations as may be appropriate. If the dispute has 
not been settled, a report by the council shall be published, 
setting forth with all necessary facts and explanations the 
recommendation which the council thinks just and proper 
for the settlement of the dispute. If the report is unan- 
imously agreed to by the members of the council other 
than the parties to the dispute, the high contracting par- 
ties agree that they will not go to war with any party 
which complies with the recommendations and that if 
any party shall refuse so to comply the council shall pro- 
pose measures necessary to give effect to the recommenda- 
tions. If no such unanimous report can be made, it shall 
be the duty of the majority and the privilege of the 
minority to issue statements indicating what they believe 
to be the facts and containing the reasons which they con- 
sider to be just and proper. 

The executive council may in any case under this 
article refer the dispute to the body of the delegates. The 
dispute shall be so referred at the request of either party 
to the dispute, provided that such request must be made 
within fourteen days after the submission of the dispute. 
In a case referred to the body of delegates all the pro- 
visions of this article and of article XII relating to the 
action and powers of the executive council shall apply to 
the action and powers of the body of delegates. 



WOODROW WILSON 565 

Article XVI 

Should any of the high contracting parties break or 
disregard its covenant under Article XII it shall there, ipso 
facto, be deemed to have committed an act of war against 
all the other members of the league, which hereby under- 
take immediately to subject it to the severance of all trad. 
or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse 
between their nationals and the nationals of the covenant- 
breaking state, and the prevention of all financial, com- 
mercial or personal intercourses between the nationals of 
the covenant-breaking state and the nationals of any other 
state, whether a member of the league or not. 

It shall be the duty of the executive council in such 
case to recommend what effective military or naval force 
the members of the league shall severally contribute to the 
armed forces to be used to protect the covenants of the 
league. 

The high contracting parties agree, further, that they 
will mutually support one another in the financial and 
economic measures which may be taken under this article, 
in order to minimize the loss and inconvenience resulting 
from the above measures, and that they will mutually sup- 
port one another in resisting all special measures aimed 
at one of their number by the covenant-breaking state, and 
that they will afford passage thru their territory to the 
forces of any of the high contracting parties who are 
cooperating to protect the covenants of the league. 

Article XVII 

In the event of disputes between one state member of 
the league and another state which is not a member of the 
league, or between states not members of the league, the 
high contracting parties agree that the state or states not 
members of the league shall be invited to accept the obliga 
tions of membership in the league for the purpose of Buoh 
dispute, upon such conditions as the executive council may 



566 WOODROW WILSON 

deem just, and upon acceptance of any such invitation the 
above provision shall be applied with such modifications 
as may be deemed necessary by the league. 

Upon such invitation being given, the executive coun- 
cil shall immediately institute an inquiry into the circum- 
stances and merits of the dispute and recommend such 
action as may seem best and most effectual in the circum- 
stances. 

In the event of a power so invited refusing to accept 
the obligations of membership in the league for the pur- 
poses of the league, which in the case of a state member of 
the league would "constitute a breach of Article XII, the 
provisions of Article XVI shall be applicable as against 
the state taking such action. 

If both parties to the dispute when so invited refuse 
to accept the obligations of membership in the league for 
the purpose of such dispute, the executive council may 
take such action and make such recommendations as will 
prevent hostilities and will result in the settlement of the 
dispute. 

Article XVIII 

The high contracting parties agree that the league 
shall be intrusted with general supervision of the trade in 
arms and ammunition with the countries in which the con- 
trol of this traffic is necessary in the common interest. 

Article XIX 

To those colonies and territories, which as a conse- 
quence of the late war have ceased to be under the sov- 
ereignty of the states which formerly governed them, and 
which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by 
themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern 
world, there should be applied the principle that the well- 
being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust 
of civilization and that securities for the performance of 



WOODROW WILSON 5G7 

this trust should be embodied in the constitution of the 
league. 

The best method of giving practical effect to this prin- 
ciple is that the tutelage of such peoples should be in- 
trusted to advanced nations, who by reason of their re- 
sources, their experience or their geographical position, 
can best undertake this responsibility, and that this 
tutelage should be exercised by them as mandatories on 
behalf of the league. 

The character of the mandate must differ according 
to the stage of the development of the people, the geo- 
graphical situation of the territory, its economic condi- 
tions and other similar circumstances. 

Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turk- 
ish empire have reached a stage of development where 
their existence as independent nations can be provision- 
ally recognized, subject to the rendering of administrative 
advice and assistance by a mandatory power until such 
time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these 
communities must be a principal consideration in the se- 
lection of the mandatory power. 

Other peoples, especially those of central Africa, are 
at such a stage that the mandatory must be responsible 
for the administration of the territory, subject to condi- 
tions which will guarantee freedom of conscience or re- 
ligion, subject only to the maintenance of public order and 
morals, the prohibition of abuses, such as the slave trade, 
the arms traffic and the liquor traffic, and the prevention of 
the establishment of fortifications or military and naval 
bases and of military training of the natives for other than 
police purposes and the defense of territory, and will also 
secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of 
other members of the league. 

There are territories, such as southwest Africa and 
certain of the south Pacific isles, which, owing to the 
sparseness of their population, or their small size, or their 
remoteness from the centers of civilization, or other geo- 



568 WOODROW WILSON 

graphical continuity to the mandatory state, and other 
circumstances, can be best administered under the laws of 
the mandatory state as integral portions thereof, subject 
to the safeguards above mentioned, in the interests of the 
indigenous population. 

In every case of mandate, the mandatory state shall 
render to the league an annual report in reference to the 
territory committed to its charge. 

The degree of authority, control or administration to 
be exercised by the mandatory state shall, if not previously 
agreed upon by the high contracting parties in each case, 
be explicitly denned by the executive council in a special 
act or charter. 

The high contracting parties further agree to estab- 
lish at the seat of the league a mandatory commission to 
receive and examine the annual reports of the mandatory 
powers and to assist the league in insuring the observance 
of the terms of all mandates. 

Article XX 

The high contracting parties will endeavor to secure 
and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor for men, 
women and children, both in their own countries and in all 
countries to which their commercial and industrial rela- 
tions extend, and to that end agree to establish as part 
of the organization of the league a permanent bureau of 
labor. 

Article XXI 

The high contracting parties agree that provision 
shall be made thru the instrumentality of the league to 
secure and maintain freedom of transit and equitable 
treatment for the commerce of all states members of the 
league, having in mind, among other things, special ar- 
rangements with regard to the necessities of the regions 
devastated during the war of 1914-1918. 



WOODROW WILSON 569 

Article XXII 

The high contracting parties agree to place under the 
control of the league all international bureaus already 
established by general treaties if the parties to Buch 
treaties consent. Furthermore, they agree that all such 
international bureaus to be constituted in future shall be 
placed under control of the league. 

Article XXIII 

The high contracting parties agree that every treaty 
or international engagement entered into hereafter by any 
state member of the league shall be forthwith registered 
with the secretary general, and as soon as possible pub- 
lished by him, and that no such treaty or international 
engagement shall be binding until so registered. 

Article XXIV 

It shall be the right of the body of delegates from time 
to time to advise the reconsideration by states members 
of the league of treaties which have become inapplicable, 
and of international conditions of which the continuance 
may endanger the peace of the world. 

Article XXV 

The high contracting parties severally agree that the 
present covenant is accepted as abrogating all obligations 
inter se which are inconsistent with the terms thereof, and 
solemnly engage that they will not hereafter enter into 
any engagements inconsistent with the terms t hereof. In 
case any of the powers signatory hereto or subsequently 
admitted to the league shall, before becoming a party to 
the covenant, have undertaken any obligations which are 
inconsistent with the terms of this covenant, il shall be 
the duty of such power to take immediate steps to procure 
its release from such obligations. 



570 WOODKOW WILSON 

Article XXVI 

Amendments to this covenant will take effect when 
ratified by the states whose representatives compose the 
executive council and by three-fourths of the states whose 
representatives compose the body of delegates. 

A storm of public criticism swept over the United 
States and Great Britain immediately after the draft of 
the covenant was made public. The storm in the United 
States centered in Washington, where a Republican sen- 
ate had convened after the President's departure for 
France. 

Senator Borah, leader of the opposition, took the 
ground that the covenant did not guarantee in any way 
the enforcement by the United States of the Monroe doc- 
trine, by which this country had maintained North and 
South America for Americans alone since December 2, 
1823. Another objection to the covenant was that it 
bound the United States to preserve law and order in 
every country on the globe. 

' ' It means that we will be true to our word even when 
we cannot look to European nations to keep theirs," said 
Senator Borah. "It behooves us to .guard against entan- 
gling ourselves in a covenant from which we cannot extri- 
cate ourselves in case we should desire to do so." 

Other objections voiced on the floor of the senate were 
that the league of nations covenant, as it stood, would 
throw open the doors of immigration to Chinese and Jap- 
anese, and that the United States would be unable to pre- 
vent their entry. 

The result was that the senate passed this resolution, 
opposing the covenant: 

"Whereas, The policies thus early announced by 
Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe, and ever since ad- 
hered to by this country, regardless of political parties, 
have contributed greatly to the peace and happiness of the 
people of the United States ; 



WOODROW WILSON 571 

"Whereas, We believe any material departure from 
these policies would be fraught with danger to the peace 
and happiness of the people of the United States, involv- 
ing us in all probability in controversies of other nations, 
Therefore be it 

"Besolved, That the senate of the United States reaf- 
firm its faith and confidence in the permanent worth and 
wisdom of these policies, and shall seek in all matters com- 
ing before it touching the interests or affairs of foreign 
countries to conform its acts to these time honored prin- 
ciples so long and so happily a part of our own policy." 

Senator Borah, in commenting on the resolution, re- 
ferred to the purchase from Denmark of the St. Thomas 
islands by the United States. 

' ' Let us illustrate, ' ' he said. ' ' Why did we purchase 
the St. Thomas islands? They were situated on one of 
the routes leading to the Panama canal. It was known 
or feared that Germany wished to secure these islands. 

"Suppose she had purchased the islands and had 
undertaken to take possession of them. Would we have 
consented for Germany to have those islands on the route 
to the Panama canal? Would we have submitted to an 
international court the question of whether or not we 
should maintain the Monroe doctrine? 

"Or, if we had submitted it and it had been decided 
against us, would we have given up the Monroe doctrine 
and permitted Germany to acquire the islands? 

"Under this league to enforce peace, that would have 
put us in the wrong and we would have found ourselves 
a member of a league by the terms of which we invited 
all the nations of Europe to fight us because we refused 
to submit the Monroe doctrine to tribunal or refused to 
give it up. ' ' 

President Wilson continued his efforts to advance 
the covenant in spite of the obviously hostile attitude of 
the senate. It was not until that body again voiced its 
protests against the inclusion of the Japanese equality 



572 WOODROW WILSON 

clause, that the President was moved to give them atten- 
tion. 

March 25, 1919, he announced in Paris that an amend- 
ment to Article X would be made to include the Monroe 
doctrine, guaranteeing the territorial integrity of North 
and South America. The amendment was written by for- 
mer President Taf t, at the request of President Wilson. 
On the same day the executive committee adopted another 
amendment changing the racial equality clause to conform 
with the American emigration policy. 

On February 19, 1919, the world was startled by news 
of an attempt to assassinate Clemenceau as he was enter- 
ing his carriage on his way to the conference. The bullet 
struck Clemenceau in the chest, but did not deter him 
from grappling with his assailant, a youth named Emile 
Cottin. Cottin was rescued with difficulty from an angry 
mob by gendarmes. 

The assault was another phase of the Bolshevist 
movement. Cottin, frightened at his rough handling by 
the crowd, waited until he was assured that the premier 
would recover. He then gave out several revolutionist 
statements in which he declared that "he was opposed to 
all constituted authority." Asked to explain in detail 
exactly what he meant by that, he had nothing to say. He 
was tried by a military court, and sentenced to death. 
Clemenceau, who had continued with the peace conference, 
regardless of his injury, interceded with President Poin- 
care and had the sentence commuted to ten years' im- 
prisonment. 




PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE CREW OF THE 
"GEORGE WASHINGTON" EN ROUTE TO FRANCE. 




IN GENOA, ITALY, THE PRESIDENT PLACED A 
WREATH ON THE STATUE OF CHRIS- 
TOPHER COLUMBUS. 



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CHAPTER XXXIV 
THE DEMANDS OF THE VICTORS. 

It is well to give at this point a brief statement of 
the points which each nation sought to bring out as part 
of its national policies and war demands at the peace 
conference. 

The United States, represented by President Wilson, 
stood firmly for the principles enunciated during the try- 
ing days of the war. The President continued to maintain 
that America had been drawn into the war against its will 
and that a great principle, that of self determination and 
national integrity for all nations, was at stake. 

"Our policy is one of no indemnity and no an- 
nexation," was President Wilson's statement on many 
occasions. 

He stated that the United States wanted world peace 
and the guarantee that the smaller nations of the world 
would remain unexploited by the powers. Beyond that — 
nothing. America would pay her own war bills, he said, 
and more too if it was necessary. 

The South American countries stood squarely in back 
of President Wilson. It was to their interest to do so as 
the protection given by the United States was a sure 
guarantee of their national integrity. Without that pro- 
tection they would have been at the mercy of the Central 
powers more than twenty years ago when the kaiser 
decided that the "future of Germany lay on the sea 

Great Britain entered the peace conference with 
many perplexing questions. Looming large was the Irish 
crisis. Shaen O'Celligh (Shane O'Kelley), the Sein Fein 
delegate to the peace conference, was in Paris and de- 
clared openly that the peace ronference would cease to be 

577 



578 WOODROW WILSON 

what its name betokened if lie were not given audience 
by the leading powers. 

The German settlements in South Africa, which had 
been overrun during the war, were another knotty ques- 
tion for the British to decide. They also proved the basis 
of Portugal's claims. It was believed, however, that Por- 
tugal would follow the lead of Great Britain in the settle- 
ment of the African colony question. 

Great Britain was also prepared to fight a German 
protest on the protectorate in Egypt with the argument 
that Germany, through Turkey, had stirred up an attack 
on the allies during the war having for its object the 
wresting of the Suez canal from British hands. 

The last problem of Great Britain was the question 
of damages and indemnities to be paid by Germany to the 
victims of the ruthless submarine campaign in which 
many noncombatants were sent to their deaths. The ques- 
tion of Gibraltar and its cession to Spain was rumored at 
one time, but no mention of it was made when the con- 
ference opened. 

France was the nation most affected by the peace pro- 
ceedings. The principal demand of the French repre- 
sentatives was that Germany evacuate the provinces lying 
west of the Rhine so far as military occupation was con- 
cerned. Fortresses were to be dismantled and divisional 
headquarters removed. 

Next came the demand for the return to France of 
Alsace and Lorraine, which had been under German do- 
minion since the disastrous war of 1871. The French pro- 
gram also demanded that the indemnity paid by France 
since that war be returned with a further indemnity to 
recompense France for her war expenditures. 

Ranking with these leading questions was that of the 
ruined mines in France, and the French delegates inti- 
mated that they would be satisfied with nothing in lieu 
thereof but a free hand in the operation of German mines 
in the Saar valley. 



WOODROW WILSON 579 

Other French demands were based on the return of 
machinery, merchandise, patents, designs, plans, and 
chemicals stolen by the Germans in the invasion. A cer- 
tain amount of indemnity was to be paid to restore the 
factory buildings and the homes of workers which had 
been destroyed by the German artillery. 

Italy sought the establishment of a northern frontier 
which would remove for all time the danger of another 
Austrian attack. The Trentino was demanded and Ital- 
ian domination of the Adriatic was necessary, the Italian 
delegates declared. It was pointed out that the Italian 
coast lying on the Adriatic was a flat, low country afford- 
ing no protection for ships, while the east coast was a 
rocky region abounding in harborage from which an 
enemy could direct strong military attacks on Italy with 
little chance of their being defeated. 

The Belgian demands were limited to the restoration 
of the ruined towns and country with indemnity for per- 
sonal damages inflicted by the enemy. A strong guaran- 
tee for future neutrality was included. From the begin- 
ning, the Belgian delegates, with true magnanimity, de- 
clared that they were concerned more with placing their 
country in its former prosperous state than trying to 
wreak their just vengeance on the kaiser through a trial. 

Serbia and Montenegro, two of the heaviest sufferers 
in the war, demanded that the long dreamed of Greater 
Serbia be made a reality and that the country be given 
part of Albania with the seacoast on the Adriatic. De- 
mands for the complete self determination of the Czecho- 
Slavs who had been under the domination of the Austro- 
Hungarian monarchy also were to be made. In addi- 
tion, Austria was to pay indemnities for the restoration 
of the devastated regions and for a guarantee of future 
peace. 

The demands of Greece were for the extension of her 
frontiers at the expense of Turkey. A strong point in 
the Grecian claims was the liberation of a large number of 



580 WOODROW WILSON 

Greeks who were living under foreign rule in Macedonia, 
Asia Minor and the Island of Cyprus These were to be 
repatriated so far as possible by annexation of territory. 

Roumania, smarting under the shameful terms in- 
flicted by the Germans, Austrians, Bulgarians and Turks/ 
entered the peace conference prepared to demand guaran- 
tees that would leave her safe in the future from the 
aggression of the Central powers and their eastern allies. 
The Roumanian delegates also demanded that a suitable 
government be established in the Ukraine. The interna- 
tionalization of the Dardanelles and Constantinople also 
was asked by the Roumanians. It was pointed out that 
Roumania could be isolated from the world by Turkey in 
case the Ottoman empire was not curbed in the exercise 
of sovereign powers or entirely eliminated from the 
Bosphorus. 

The Japanese demands centered about the Shantung 
peninsula and the German islands in the Pacific, which 
Japan had occupied after a great military effort. China 
was opposed to the Japanese program so far as it affected 
the peninsula and did not hesitate to say so. Japanese 
aggression was declared by the Chinese delegates to be a 
move against the open door policy in China. Japan also 
demanded racial equality. 

Beside the individual questions before the conference, 
there were many problems of international importance. 
First of these was the peace treaty. Next came the league 
of nations. Others were the action to be taken against the 
former kaiser and the leading figures in Germany who 
precipitated the war. The problem of an autonomous 
Poland and a Czecho-Slav republic also were pressing. 
An allied protectorate in Armenia was listed for discus- 
sion and it. was practically assured that the Kiel canal 
and Constantinople, including the Dardanelles, would be 
internationalized. It was suggested early in the proceed- 
ings that an international protectorate be set up in the 
Holy Land, pending the outcome of the Zionist movement 



WOODROW WILSON 581 

which had for its aim the return to Palestine of the 
Hebrew race. 

On March 26, 1919, the official bulletin of the peace 
conference stated that President Wilson had advocated 
the formation of a single peace treaty that would bind the 
interests of all the belligerent nations into one document 
so that another violation of treaty rights would affect all. 

The following day saw the committee of ten elimi- 
nated and the committee of the big four — Great Britain, 
France, Italy, and the United States — acting in its stead. 
The result was a decision to complete the league of nations 
covenant and the peace treaty at the same time. Four 
phases of the business before the conference were taken 
up by the committee. 

It was decided: first, to insure ample security for 
the future protection of France, especially on her eastern 
frontier; second, to establish a strong Italy, with a for- 
midable northern barrier against aggression; third, to 
create a strong Poland; fourth, to found a league of 
nations pledged on material as well as moral grounds, 
for the preservation of world peace. 

In the meantime the political situation in France was 
becoming restless. It was erroneously rumored in Paris 
that Clemenceau was to be removed as premier. But the 
rumor, though baseless, had the effect of making the 
envoys of the smaller nations uneasy; and several dele- 
gates intimated they would withdraw from the conference 
and make a separate peace with the Central powers. 

On March 28, 1919, the fears of the minor nation rep- 
resentatives were quieted by the announcement that the 
committee of the big four met and debated the problem 
of the Saar valley and means of protecting France. Rep- 
aration to be made by the enemy states also was up for 
discussion, but no definite action was taken. The confer- 
ence was moved to hot debate over an announcement thai 
the Germanic powers had approached the Swiss govern- 
ment on the question of accepting the cession of all Ger- 



582 WOODROW WILSON 

man Austria. Good feeling was restored when the Swiss 
minister in Paris announced that his government had 
declined the offer, and that Switzerland would accept 
nothing in the way of territorial expansion but the annex- 
ation of Lichtenstein, the inhabitants of which state had 
signified their willingness to join the Swiss federation. 

On the day next following it was announced that 
Geneva would be chosen as the seat of the league of na- 
tions. The conclusion was reached after Brussels, Eome, 
Constantinople, and The Hague had been considered by 
the committee of the big four. The Latin nations opposed 
the use of The Hague on the ground that it was too far 
north ; Brussels was eliminated because of possible hostile 
feeling growing out of the war ; Rome, because it was the 
capital of a big power ; and Constantinople, because it was 
somewhat inaccessible. 

Up to this time there had been severe foreign criti- 
cisms of the policy of the United States in feeding Ger- 
many. On March 22, Henry Wales, Paris correspondent 
of the Chicago Tribune, called on Herbert Hoover, to 
whom had been intrusted the task of feeding all Europe, 
and asked him if he would issue a statement. Mr. Hoover 
said: 

"The only question is, 'Why are we feeding 
Germany?' " 

"From the point of view of my western upbringing 
I would say at once because we don't kick a man in the 
stomach after we have licked him. 

"From the point of view of a government I would say 
it is because famine breeds anarchy and anarchy is infec- 
tious. Infection from such a cesspool would jeopardize 
France, Great Britain, and thus involve the United States. 

"From the point of view of a peace negotiator I 
would say it is because we must maintain order and a 
stable government in Germany if we would have some one 
with whom to sign peace. 

"From the point of view of an economist I would 



WOODROW WILSON 583 

say that it is because the German people must have food 
in order to maintain a stable government and get back to 
production. Otherwise there is no hope of their paying 
the damages they owe to the world. 

"From the point of view of a business man I would 
say it is because we need these damages more than any 
other form of punishment. 

"From the point of view of a humanitarian I would 
say it is because we have not been fighting women and 
children and we are not beginning now. 

"From the point of view of our secretary of war, I 
would say it is because we wish to return the American 
soldiers home, and it is a good bargain to give food for 
passenger steamers on which our boys may arrive home 
many months earlier than would otherwise be the case. 

"From the point of view of the American treasurer, I 
would say it is because it saves the United States enormous 
expenditures in Europe in support of idle men and allows 
these soldiers to return to productivity in the United 
States. 

"From the point of view of a negotiator of the 
armistice, I would say it is because we are honor bound to 
fulfill the implied terms of the armistice that Germany 
shall have food. 

"Let us not befog our minds with the idea that all we 
have done for Germany is to lift the blockade sufficient to 
allow her to import a limited amount of food from any 
market she wishes. 

"Taking it by and large, our face is turned forward, 
not backward, on history. We and our children must live 
in the world with these 70,000,000 Germans. No matter 
how bitterly we may feel, our vision must stretch over the 
next 100 years, and we must write now into history such 
acts as will stand creditably in the minds of our grand- 
children that we may not ourselves have fostered growths 
of cancer in the vitals of civilization." 



584 WOODROW WILSON 

Mr. Hoover's statement brought an end to the criti- 
cism which had been directed against the American policy. 

The German people, in the meantime, were pursuing 
the old game of bluff with characteristic avidity. At a 
public meeting held in Berlin on March 24, Edward Bern- 
stein, a majority socialist, was received with hisses when 
he attempted to address the audience on the rights of 
France in Alsace-Lorraine. Meanwhile, Dr. Bernhard 
Dernburg, former chief of the German propaganda service 
in the United States, was talking to newspaper corre- 
spondents in Geneva, stating that the German representa- 
tives could not sign a peace that was not impartial. 

The news that France was to demand concessions in 
the Saar valley led Dr. Schiff er, minister of finance of the 
new Berlin cabinet, to declare on March 26 that the Ger- 
man Government would not yield one inch of territory to 
France. In Berlin the claim of the Poles to Dantzig and 
the proposed French concessions in the Saar were de- 
nounced by street speakers. The statement also was that 
the Allies were seeking to formulate an "enslaving 
peace." 

In Washington the agitation against the League of 
Nations continued unabated and public discussions were 
held all over the country. Charles Evans Hughes, former 
chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, used the 
proposed covenant for the subject of an address delivered 
March 26th before the Union League Club in New York. 
He voiced the desires of many of his followers in these 
proposed amendments : 

(1) Explicit provision as to the requirement of 
unanimity of decision. 

(2) Suitable limitation as to the field of the league's 
inquiries and action, so as to leave no doubt that the in- 
ternal concerns of states, such as immigration and tariff 
laws, are not embraced. 

(3) Providing that no foreign power shall hereafter 
acquire by conquest, purchase, or in any other way, any 



WOODROW WILSON 

possession on the American continent or the islands 
adjacent thereto. 

(4) Providing that the settlement of purely Ameri 
can questions shall be remitted primarily to the American 
nations, and that European nations shall not intervene 
unless requested to do so by the American nations. 

(5) "Omitting the guaranty (of the existing inde- 
pendence of member nations) of article X. 

(6) Providing that no member of the league shall be 
constituted a mandatory without its consent, and no Euro- 
pean or Asiatic power shall be constituted a mandator 
any American people. 

(7) Providing that any member of the league may 
withdraw at its pleasure on a specified notice. 

Article X came in for severe criticism at the hands of 
Hughes. He branded it a " trouble breeder ' ' instead of a 
" peacemaker," as it was intended to be. 

Senator Medill McCormick of Illinois also attacked 
the proposed covenant. He declared that the adoption of 
the covenant as it stood would make it necessary for the 
United States to use its army and navy in every part of 
the world. 

An announcement from Berlin on March 29th that 
the Polish army would not be allowed to pass through 
Dantzig once more attracted the attention of the peace 
conference and the world in general. Upon investigation 
it was decided there was some essence of truth in the Ger- 
man statement that trouble might ensue between the 
Polish soldiers and the populace in Dantzig in case the 
Poles landed. Germany's offer to permit the use of 
' Konigsburg or Libau for the purpose satisfied the Allies. 
Although there was no occasion for it, the German lead- 
ers took the opportunity to cast further aspersions on tin- 
motives of the Allies and declare that they would not sub 
mit to anything that did not please them. 

The first week in April passed without incident , owing 
to the illness of President Wilson, who was ordered to bed 



586 WOODROW WILSON 

by his physicians as a result of overwork in connection 
with the peace conference. It was not until April 9th that 
he was well enough to attend meetings of the committee of 
the Big Pour, and several important questions had been 
waiting his attention. 

On April 11, 1919, it was announced that progress had 
been made on the league of nations covenant. There was 
no provision made to racial equality in accordance with 
the Japanese demands, but Article X was amended to in- 
clude specific mention of the Monroe Doctrine. It now 
read: 

" Article X. — Nothing in this covenant shall be 
deemed to affect the validity of international engagements 
such as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings, 
like the Monroe Doctrine, for securing the maintenance of 
peace." 

The amendment was not adopted without opposition 
from some of the delegates. The Chinese protested on the 
ground that foreign leaseholds which the Chinese Govern- 
ment might decide to foreclose at some future time would 
be affected by the amendment. Great Britain had re- 
frained from passing an opinion up until the final meet- 
ing, and Lord Robert Cecil made his nation's position 
clear by stating that he could see no objection to the 
amendment, including the Monroe Doctrine. He was fol- 
lowed by M. Laurnaude of the French delegation, who also 
protested. 

President Wilson then spoke on the opposition which 
had been voiced against the amendment. His address 
closed the discussion, and when he had finished there was 
complete silence. It was then announced by the chair- 
man that the amendment had been accepted. There was 
no vote taken and no further opposition was made. It 
was the first time in history that the great powers officially 
recognized the Monroe Doctrine as a tangible principle of 
the United States Government. 

On April 14 an announcement was made that the 



WOODROW WILSON 587 

peace conference had decided on the indemnity to be paid 
by Germany, and that the German emissaries were notified 
to be in Paris on April 25. The total amount of the in- 
demnity was placed at 100,000,000,000 marks ($25,000,- 
000,000 ) in gold, to be paid in installments. The announce- 
ment stated : 

"The payment of the 100,000,000,000 gold marks is to 
be divided into three distinct amounts, as follows : 

"First, twenty billions ($5,000,000,000) within two 
years. 

"Second, forty billions ($10,000,000,000) during 
thirty years, beginning in 1921. 

"Third, forty billions ($10,000,000,000) when a com- 
mission shall determine how it shall be done." 

In view of the fluctuations through which the nego- 
tiations have passed, an authoritative statement was made 
concerning the final terms of the settlement. This summed 
up the conditions, as follows : 

' * Germany is at the outset held generally responsible 
for losses and damages, in accordance with President Wil- 
son's Fourteen Points and the allied response at the time 
the armistice was concluded. 

"To determine the extent of the payment under this 
responsibility, a commission is set up to take testimony, 
assemble data, and arrange all details of the payments 
from the enemy and distribution among the allied and 
associated powers. 

"These 40,000,000,000 marks draw 2y 2 per cent inter- 
est from 1921 to 1926 and 5 per cent interest after 1926. 

"In addition to the foregoing payments Germany 
also will be required to deliver additional bonds for 
40,000,000,000 marks when the commission determines 
that this shall be done. 

"These three payments of 20,000,000,000, 40,000,000,- 
000, and 40,000,000,000 marks bring the total to 100,000,- 
000,000 gold marks. 

"Beyond this total the commission is empowered to 



588 WOODROW WILSON 

fix anything further that may be required to cover Ger- 
many's indebtedness." 

The allotment of the indemnity was postponed to a 
later date. 

President Wilson, after the indemnity was an- 
nounced, made the following statement : 

' ' In view of the fact that the questions which must be 
settled in the peace with Germany have been brought so 
near a complete solution that they can now quickly be put 
through the final process of drafting, those who have been 
most constantly in conference about them have decided 
to advise that the German plenipotentiaries be invited 
to meet the representatives of the associated belligerent 
nations at Versailles on the 25th of April. 

' ' This does not mean that the many other questions 
connected with the general peace settlement will be inter- 
rupted or that their consideration, which has long been 
under way, will be retarded. On the contrary, it is ex- 
pected that rapid progress will now be made with these 
questions so that they may also presently be expected to 
be ready for final settlement. 

* 'It is hoped that the questions most directly affecting 
Italy, especially the Adriatic questions, can now be 
brought to a speedy agreement. The Adriatic question 
will be given for the time precedence over other questions 
and pressed by continual study to its final stage. 

' ' The settlements that belong especially to the treaty 
with Germany will in this way be got out of the way at 
the same time that all other settlements are being brought 
to a complete formulation. 

"It is realized that, though this process must be fol- 
lowed, all the questions of the present great settlement are 
parts of a single whole. 

"I have today good hope. The most complicated 
questions now are solved. Under these conditions I hope 
that a satisfactory solution will be reached pretty soon. ' ' 

The semi-official reports of the peace conference pro- 



WOODROW WILSON 589 

ceedings that penetrated to Berlin caused indignant and 
somewhat insolent comment by the Junker newspapers. 

Among those who commented was Prince Lichnowsky of 
"general denial" fame. He said: 

"France forgets that, instead of leading to disarma- 
ment, an unjustly extorted peace will bring forth only 
fresh armaments, throwing into the shade all former 
armaments, because a mailed fist peace can be maintained 
only by the mailed fist. Nobody can recommence the war 
against us. Neither can we be starved out, without the 
common enemy, communism, and terrorism, throwing all 
mankind back into its primitive state. ' ' 

"No German government can sign such terms," the 
Vorwaerts declared. "The entente statesmen must them- 
selves settle with the inhabitants of the Saar valley, who 
are thoroughly German, and they may find that the sums 
proposed as indemnity can not be extracted, even if the 
last sheet is taken from our beds. ' ' 

"The solution of the Saar question which is proposed 
means the covering of naked annexation with a fig leaf, ' ' 
said the Boersen Courier. "Mr. Wilson seems to have 
approved of a plan that would be the most tremendous 
political defeat he could experience. ' ' 

President Ebert of Germany addressed the following 
Easter message to the national assembly : 

"The national assembly expressed unanimously on 
April 10th the expectation that the government would 
agree only to a peace based on understanding and recon- 
ciliation and would reject any treaty which would sacrifice 
the present and future of the German people and the 
world. 

"I welcome this pronouncement as a declaration of 
the inflexible will of the German people thai the coming 
peace shall be a peace of lasting understanding and eon 
ciliation among the nations. 

"The national assembly and the government are 
working with devotion and energy to fulfill the greal task 



590 WOODROW WILSON 

of giving peace, bread, work, and a new constitution to a 
great nation. The task is difficult to fulfill as long as those 
who have it in their power to give the world peace allow 
themselves to be dominated by feelings of hatred and re- 
venge and by means of the hunger blockade and by threat- 
ening our annihilation are driving the German people to 
despair. 

"Five months ago we accepted our enemies' terms. 
We agreed with them on' the basis for a conclusion of 
peace. We have fulfilled the hard armistice conditions, 
disbanded our army, and surrendered enemy prisoners, 
but peace is still withheld from us. Though defenseless 
and economically exhausted, we still are cut off by the 
blockade and our prisoners are still detained, which is 
equivalent to a continuation of the war. It is a burden 
such as no nation has as yet been compelled to endure." 



CHAPTER XXXV 
LLOYD GEORGE DEFENDS PRESIDENT WILSON. 

While the Germans were trying to make the best they 
could out of a bad situation, Lloyd George returned to 
England to present to parliament the terms which had 
been reached. He had been severely criticised by his 
political enemies over the necessary delay in Paris and his 
friends had charged his opponents, particularly Lord 
Northcliffe, with jealousy. They declared that Northcliffe 
desired to represent Great Britain at the peace confer- 
ence. Lloyd George said : 

"I shall ask the indulgence of the members to make 
some observations about the present situation. My first 
impulse, when I returned from the peace conference, was 
to wait for the much advertised criticism I had been told 
to expect, but diligent inquiries proved to me that it was 
not forthcoming. 

"The reason assigned in particular quarters is the 
remarkable one that I must not expect criticism until the 
house had been informed as to what the delegates were 
doing. Coming from such quarters, I should not have 
thought the facts would have been regarded in the slight- 
est, but I am fully aware that there is a good deal of im- 
patience in the world for peace. 

1 ' The task with which the peace delegates have been 
confronted is indeed a gigantic one. No conference that 
ever assembled in the history of the world has been con- 
fronted with problems of such variety, of such perplexity, 
of such magnitude, and of such gravity. 

"The congress of Vienna was the nearest approach 
to it. It had to settle the affairs of Europe. It took eleven 
months. But the problems of the congress of Vienna, 

591 



592 WOODROW WILSON 

great as they were, sink into insignificance when compared 
with those that we have to settle at the Paris conference. 
It is not one continent that is engaged. Every continent 
is affected. With few exceptions every country in Europe 
has been in this war, every country in Asia is affected by 
the war except Tibet and Afghanistan. There is not a 
square mile of Africa which has not been engaged in the 
war in one way or another. Almost the whole of the 
nations of America are in the war. Among the far islands 
of the southern seas, islands have been captured and from 
those islands hundreds of thousands of men have gone to 
fight in this great struggle. 

"There never has been in the whole history of the 
globe anything to compare with this. 

1 ' Ten new states have sprung into existence, some of 
them independent, some of them seem dependent, some of 
them may be protectorates, and at any rate, although we 
may not define their boundaries, we must give indications 
of them. The boundaries of fourteen countries have been 
recast. 

"That will give some idea of the difficulties of a 
purely territorial character that have engaged our atten- 
tion, but there are other problems equally great, equally 
important, all affecting the peace of the world, all affect- 
ing the well-being of men, all affecting the destiny of the 
human race, and every one of them of a character where if 
you make a blunder, humanity may have to pay. 

"Armament, the economic question of commerce and 
trade, questions of international waterways and railways, 
questions of indemnities, are not easy ones and not ones 
you can settle by telegrams ; international arrangements 
for labor practically never attempted before, thanks 
largely to the skill and real statesmanship displayed by 
my right honorable friend, the member for Glasgow, 
Barnes. Let me say thanks also to the assistance he had 
from some honorable and right honorable gentlemen op- 
posite, the Labor party. 



WOODROW WILSON 593 

" A great world scheme has been advanced. There is 
the, great organization, the great experiment, but an ex- 
periment upon which the hope of the world for peace will 
hang, the society of nations. All of them and each of thr-m 
separately would occupy months and a blunder might 
precipitate a universal war. It may be near or may be « 1 i - 
tant and all the nations, almost every nation on earth, is 
engaged in the consideration of these problems. 

"We were justified in taking some time. In fact, I 
don't mind saying that it would have been imperative in 
some respects that we should take more time but for one 
fact and that was that we are getting up machinery that is 
capable of readjusting and correcting possible mistakes, 
and that is why the league of nations, instead of wasting 
time, has saved time. 

"And we have to shorten our labors. Work crowded 
the hours long and late because, while we were trying to 
build, we saw in many lands the foundations of society 
crumbling into dust. We had to make haste. I venture to 
say no body of men has worked harder and no body of 
men ever worked with better heart. 

"I doubt whether any body of men has worked under 
greater difficulties ; stones cracking on the roof and crash- 
ing through the windows and sometimes wild men scream- 
ing through keyholes. I have come back to say a few 
things and I mean to say them — " 

A member: "Save you from your friends, prime 
minister. ' ' 

"And when the enormous problems are dependent 
upon it, you require calm deliberation, and I ask for it for 
the rest of the journey because the journey is not at an 
end. It is full of perils, perils for this country, perils for 
all lands, perils for the people throughout the world. I 
beg that at any rate men who are doing their best should 
be left in peace to do it or that other men should be sent 

there. 

" Everywhere are problems to be looked at from a 



594 WOODROW WILSON 

different angle, and it requires all the tact, all the patience, 
all the skill that we can command to prevent different in- 
terests from conflicting. I want the house and the coun- 
try to bear that in mind. I believe we have surmounted 
these difficulties, but it has not been easy. 

''There are questions which have almost imperiled 
the peace of Europe whilst we were sitting there. I should 
like to put each member of this house through an examina- 
tion. I am certain I could not have passed it before I went 
to the peace conference. 

' ' I had never heard of Teschen, but it nearly produced 
an angry conflict between two allied states, and we had to 
try and settle the affairs of Teschen, and there are many 
questions of that kind where missions have been sent and 
where we had to settle differences in order to get on with 
the different problems of war, and those questions are of 
importance to the small states. 

' ' But it was the quarrels of the small states that made 
the great war. Differences of the Balkans disturbed 
Europe and created an atmosphere of unrest which began 
the trouble and roused the military temper, and I am not 
at all sure it did not incite the blood lust. 

"One of the features of the present situation is that 
central Europe is falling into small states. The greatest 
care must be taken lest the causes of future unrest be cre- 
ated by the settlement which we make. In addition we 
had before us the complete breakup of three ancient em- 
pires — Russia, Turkey, and Austria. 

"I should like to say a few words about Russia. I 
have heard simple remedies produced on both sides. Some 
say use force. Some say make peace. It is not as easy as 
all that. It is one of the most complex problems ever dealt 
with by any body of men. One difficulty is that there is no 
Russia. Siberia, the Don, and the Caucasus have broken 
off, and then there is some organization controlling cen- 
tral Russia, but there is no body of men that can say it is 
a government for the whole of Russia. 



WOODROW WILSON 595 

"Apart from all questions, whether you can under 
any circumstances recognize the bolshevik government, 
you could not recognize it as the de facto government of 
Russia, because it is not, and there is no other governn 
you could call the de facto government of Russia. 

' ' You have a vast country in a state of complete con- 
fusion. It is just like a volcano which is still in furious 
eruption, and the best you can do is to provide security for 
those who are dwelling on its remotest and most accessible 
slopes and arrest the flow of the lava that it may not 
scorch other lands. 

"It is easy to say about Russia, 'why do not you do 
something?' To begin with, let me say there is no ques- 
tion of recognition. It was never proposed, never dis- 
cussed. There is no government. The bolshevists have 
committed crimes against allied subjects and made it im- 
possible to recognize them even as a civilized government, 
and they are at this moment attacking our friends in 
Russia. 

1 ' What is the alternative ! Does anyone propose mili- 
tary intervention? I want you to realize what Iliat means. 
First of all, there is a fundamental principle of foreign 
policy in this country that you never interfere with the 
internal affairs of other countries. Whether Russia is 
czarist, republican, menshevik, or bolshevik, whether it 
is reactionary or revolutionary, whether it follows one 
set of people or another, that is a matter for the Russian 
people themselves. 

"Even the present Russian experiment with its hor- 
rible consequences does not justify us in committing this 
country to a giant military enterprise. Let me speak in 
al solemnity and with a great sense of responsibility. 
Russia is a country that is easy to invade but difficult to 
conquer. It has not been conquered by any foreign foe, 
though it has been invaded many times. It is a country 
easy to get into but difficult to get out of. 

"You have only to look what happened within the last 



596 WOODROW WILSON 

few years to the Germans. They captured millions of Rus- 
sian prisoners and guns. The Eussians had no ammuni- 
tion. There was barely any one to resist them, and at last 
the Russian armies fled, leaving the guns in the field. 
Neither Mr. Kerensky nor any of his successors could get 
together 10,000 disciplined men, and yet the Germans, to 
the last moment, while their front was broken in France 
and their country menaced with invasion, had to keep a 
million men in Russia. They had entangled themselves 
in a morass and could not get out of it. Let it be a warn- 
ing. 

"If we conquer Russia — and we can conquer Russia 
— you would be surprised at the military advice given to 
us as to the number of men that would be required, and I 
should like to know where they are to come from. Sup- 
posing you had them, that you gathered overwhelming 
armies and conquered Russia, what maimer of govern- 
ment are you going to set up there? You must set up a 
government that the people want. Does anybody know 
what government they would ask for? It is a government 
we do not like. Are we to reconquer Russia till we get a 
government we do like ? 

"I have read criticisms in this house where the house 
showed a natural desire to control the expenditure in this 
country on railways and canals. My right honorable 
friend, with all his energy, could not spend in a quarter 
of a century as much money on railways and canals as in 
a single year on military enterprises in Russia. I share 
the horror for bolshevik teaching, but I would rather leave 
Russia bolshevik until she sees her way out of it than see 
Britain bankrupt. That is the surest road to bolshevism 
in Britain. 

"I only want to put quite frankly to the house my 
earnest conviction that if we assume military intervention 
in Russia it would be the greatest act of stupidity that any 
government could possibly do. 

" 'But then,' they say, 'if that is the case, why do you 



WOODROW WILSON 597 

support Koltcliak and Denikin and Kharkoff V I will tell 
the house with the same frankness. When the Brest- 
Litovsk treaty was signed there w r ere large territories of 
population in Russia that w T ould have neither hand nor 
part in the shameful act, and they revolted against the 
government that signed it, and, let me say this : tiny raised 
armies at our instigation and largely at our expense. It 
was sound military policy. 

"Had it not been for those organizations which we 
improvised the Germans would have secured all the re- 
sources, which would have enabled them to break the 
blockade. They w T ould have been supplied with almost 
every essential commodity wdiich four or five years of 
rigid blockade had deprived them of. 

"Bolshevism threatened to impose by force of arms 
its domination of those populations which had aided us. 
If we, as soon as they had served our purpose and had 
taken all the risks, had said: 'Thank you, we are exceed- 
ingly obliged to you. You have served our purpose; we 
no longer need you; now let the bolshevists go their own 
way,' we should have been mean and thoroughly un- 
worthy. 

"The next step in our policy is what I call the arrest 
of the flow of lava. That is, to prevent the eruption of 
bolshevism into allied lands. For that reason we are or- 
ganizing all the forces of the allied countries bordering 
on bolshevist territory from the Baltic to the Black sea, 
Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Roumania. There is no 
doubt that those populations are anti-bolshevik. 

"We shall be ready for any attempt of the bolsheviki 
to overrun Europe by force. That is our policy ; hut we do 
w^ant peace in Russia. The world will not be pacified as 
long as Russia is torn and rent by civil w^ar. We made our 
effort to make peace among the warring sections, not by 
recognizing anybody, but by inducing them to come 
together with a view of setting up some authority in Rue 



598 WOODKOW WILSON 

sia which would be acceptable to the whole of the Russian 
people and which the Allies could recognize. 

' ' We insisted that they should cease fighting, but with 
one accord, I regret to say, they refused to accede to this 
essential condition. Therefore the attempt may not be 
crowned with success. The soviet republic would not 
accede to the request that they should cease fighting. 

"I do not despair of a solution in time. There are 
factors in the situation, even now, which are promising. 
Reliable information indicates that, while the bolshevists 
are apparently growing in strength, bolshevism itself is 
rapidly on the wane. It is breaking down before the re- 
lentless pressure of economic facts. 

"This process must inevitably continue. They can 
not carry on the great country upon such methods. When 
bolshevism, as we know it, and as Russia to her sorrow 
has known it, disappears, then the time will come for 
another effort at the reestablishing of peace in Russia, but 
the time is not yet. 

"You are dealing with a nation which, after being 
misgoverned for centuries, has been defeated and tram- 
pled to the ground, largely through the corruption, ineffi- 
ciency, and treachery of its governments. Its losses have 
been colossal. All that largely accounts for the frenzy 
that has seized upon that great people. That is the reason 
why the nation is going through untold horrors of a fanatic 
and lunatic experiment, but there are unmistakable signs 
that Russia is emerging from the fever, and when the 
time comes, when she is once more sane and calm and 
normal, we will make peace in Russia. ' ' 

Mr. Clynes — Before the prime minister goes further, 
can he make any statement with regard to the approaches 
alleged to have been made to his government by persons 
acting on behalf of such government as there is in central 
Russia? 

"We have had no approaches at all except what has 
appeared in the papers," Mr. Lloyd George replied. 



WOODROW WILSON 599 

" There are men of all nationalities constantly going to 
Eussia and coming back with assertions, but we have had 
no approach of any sort or kind. No proposal ever has 
been brought before the peace conference by any member 
of that conference and therefore we have not considered 
any. 

' 'It is reported that an American brought communica- 
tions to the President. It is not for me to judge the value 
of those communications, but if the President of the 
United States had attached any value to them he would 
have brought them before the conference, and he certainly 
did not. 

"This Russian situation is a question of the first mag- 
nitude and great complexity, but on this I am clear. I 
entreat the house of commons and the country not to con- 
template the possibility of another great war. We have 
had quite enough of fighting. 

"I should say something about the general terms of 
peace. After a long discussion, not an hour of which was 
wasted, we have arrived at a complete understanding on 
all the great fundamental questions affecting peace with 
Germany. We hope that by next week they will be pre- 
sented to the German delegates. 

"I want to say something in view of the very un- 
fortunate attempts that have been made to sow dissension 
and mistrust and suspicion between the nations that are 
now engaged in the task of bringing peace to the whole of 
civilization. 

"I can not conceive at the present moment any worse 
crime than this attempt to sow strife, distrust, and sus- 
picion between these people whose good will, whoso coop- 
eration, whose common action and common sacrifice have 
saved the world from disaster. These things can be done 
in domestic politics and no great harm ensues, bul in this 
crisis of the world's history, when nothing can save tin- 
world but keeping the nations together, this attack is an 



600 WOODROW WILSON 

outrage. There was never a time when a greater desire 
was shown to understand each other. 

''The idea that America and Europe have been at 
hopeless variance at the conference is untrue. No one 
could have treated with more sympathy the peculiar prob- 
lems and special susceptibilities of Europe, with its long 
and bitter memories and national conflicts, than President 
Wilson. 

1 ' We have never, during the whole of this conference, 
forgotten the permanent sufferings and sacrifices in this 
war of the country in whose capital the conditions of peace 
are being determined. We have not forgotten that France 
was rent and torn twice within living memory by the same 
savage brute. We have not forgotten she is entitled to 
feel a sense of security against it. 

" And upon all questions that have come before us we 
came to a conclusion in which we were unanimous. 

"Now a word about publicity. We considered that 
question and we concluded that to publish these terms 
before they are discussed with the enemy would be a first 
class blunder. I know there has been a lot of silly talk 
about secrecy, yet no other peace conference has ever been 
given so much publicity. I am referring now to the official 
communications, issued by the conference, and, honestly, I 
would rather a good peace than a good press. 

"There are one or two reasons why we came to the 
conclusion that we would not publish the terms before they 
were discussed. No peace terms of any kind ever devised 
or promulgated can satisfy everybody. I am not referring 
to mere political and personal attacks, but to honest criti- 
cisms, inspired by higher and more sincere motives. Some 
people will think that we have gone too far and others that 
we have not gone far enough. 

"In each country people will suggest that the inter- 
ests of the country have been sacrificed for some other 
country, and all that will be published. Supposing there 
were men in this country who thought the peace terms too 



WOODROW WILSON 601 

severe. There would be speeches and leading articles. 
These speeches and articles would be published in (! r 
many, out of all proportion to others, and it would appear 
in Germany as if British public opinion were against the 
peace terms being too harsh. That would encourage re- 
sistance in Germany and make it impossible for us to 
handle the Germans. 

"I want to make another point : Supposing the terms 
proposed by Bismarck had been published in France be- 
fore they were discussed, what would have happened ? The 
communists would have been strengthened by the ad- 
herence of men who from patriotic reasons would have 
supported lawlessness in preference to what they con- 
sidered hard terms. To publish peace terms prematurely 
before the enemy has had opportunity to consider them 
would be to raise difficulties in the way of peace, and we 
mean to take the action necessary to prevent their publica- 
tion before the war was over. 

"We stand by our peace terms. On behalf of the 
government I made a statement considered by every mem- 
ber of the cabinet as to what we conceived to be the terms 
on which we could make peace. That was last year. At 
that time those terms received the adherence of every 
section of opinion in this country. There was no protest 
from any quarter. 

"A few days afterwards President Wilson proposed 
his famous Fourteen Points, which practically embodied 
my statement. I am referring to my pledges before the 
last election. 

' ' So far from my coming here to ask for reconsidera- 
tion, to ask for release from any pledge or promise we 
have given, I am here to say that all the outlines of peace 
we have given to the country and asked them to make 
sacrifices for, every pledge we have given for insertion in 
the peace demands, are incorporated in the demands which 
will be put forward by the Allies. 

"I observe some of these pledges are being published 



602 WOODROW WILSON 

[the references being to the Times and Daily Mail]. I 
am going to issue an invitation to the same enterprising 
paper that when the peace terms and peace demands put 
forward by the Allies can be published, they shall publish 
in parallel columns the pledges and promises made by the 
government. That is all I am going to say about the peace 
terms. That is all I feel it wise to say. 

"We never swerved one iota from our terms. We 
stand by them because we think they are just. We want a 
peace that is just, but not vindictive. We want a peace, a 
stern peace, because the occasion demands it, the crime 
demands it, but its severity must be designed not to gratify 
vengeance but to vindicate justice. Every clause in the 
terms must be justified on that ground. 

"Above all, we want to prevent a repetition of the 
horrors of the big war by making the wrongdoer repair 
the wrongs and losses which he has inflicted, by punishing 
each individual who is responsible, by depriving the na- 
tions who menaced the peace of Europe for half a century 
with the flourishing sword of their weapons. 

"And the most permanent security of all is the power 
of the nations of the earth federated with a firm purpose 
of maintaining peace. 

"I just want to say one other thing, because I am 
going back, if this house wants me to go back, unless it pre- 
fers another. There are many eligible offers, but whoever 
goes there is going to meet the emissaries of the enemy, 
the enemy with whom we have been fighting for five years. 
Whoever goes there must go there feeling he has the full- 
est confidence of parliament behind him. 

"I know that parliament can repudiate the treaty 
when it is signed, but it will be difficult to do it once the 
signatures are attached, and so, before anyone goes there, 
parliament must feel that they know that whoever is there 
will carry out his pledges to the uttermost of his power. 

' ' I did not object to the telegram the other day. ( Sent 
by the members of the commons demanding the premier 



WOODROW WILSON 603 

explain his course.) Let me say a word about it. I have 
the telegram, and you must remember this : These things 
when they are sent abroad become international in Fran.-', 
America, Italy, and Germany. I am told it was sent be- 
cause of information which came from a reliable source. 
I wish my honorable friend had explained that the reliable 
source was an anonymous article in the Westminster Ga- 
zette, but before he gave that answer he ought to have 
compared opinions with my honorable friend there, Col 
Claud Lowther. 

"But my honorable friend has given the reliable 
source. He said it was a telegram from Paris to the West- 
minster Gazette. [Col. Lowther: 'Did it do any harm?'] 
I think it will have done some good before I have done 
with it. 

' 'I know the reliable source. I will tell the house 
something about the reliable source. 

"There were peace terms published in November as 
a sort of model. In those peace terms there was not a 
word about idemnity, not a word about the cost of the war 
or reparation; in strictest sense of the term, not about 
reparation for lost lives, not reparation for damaged 
houses, not even at Broadstairs [this reference is to the 
damage done Lord Northcliff e 's house on the Kentish 
coast]. 

"That was in November. We were not to find any- 
one responsible for war at that time, but to try those 
guilty of offenses against the laws of war. That is the 
reliable source. Now we must have everything, the cost of 
war, damage of all sorts, hang the kaiser and everybody 
all around, especially the members of the government. 

"In December there were hundreds and thousands 
of copies of a newspaper circulated freely at somebody's 
expense among the soldiers iff France asking them to re 
turn certain candidates. If these delegates ha- 1 been re- 
turned, the delegates in Paris now would not have I 
the foreign secretary and myself, but would perhaps have 



604 WOODROW WILSON 

been Bamsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden. Who was 
that reliable source ? I happen to know, and the honorable 
gentleman is the man to whom to look for his reliable 
source, for he knows something about it. 

" At the beginning of the conference there were great 
appeals to everybody to support President Wilson. 
Where did they come from? From the same reliable 
sources that are now hysterically attacking all his great 
ideals. Just a few weeks ago there was a cartoon in one 
of those papers representing bolshevism as a mere bogey, 
and I as a person trying to frighten the working classes 
with a mere bogey. A month ago it was a monster, and I 
was doing my best to dress it up as an angel, all from the 
same reliable source. 

"Keliable? Now, that is the last adjective I could 
use. It is jumping there tomorrow, there next day. I 
would as soon rely on a grasshopper. 

" Still I am prepared to make some allowance, even to 
a great newspaper proprietor, and when the man is suf- 
fering under a keen sense of disappointment, however un- 
justified or however ridiculous his expectations may be. 
A man under those circumstances is always apt to think 
the world is badly run. 

" When a man has deluded himself and all the people 
who come near him into the belief that he is the only man 
who can do all things and is waiting for the clamor of the 
multitude that is going to demand his presence there to 
direct their destinies, but there is not a whisper, not a 
sound, it is rather disappointing, it is unnerving, it is up- 
setting, and if the war is won without him there must be 
something wrong. Of course it must be the government. 

1 ' Then at any rate he is the only man to make peace. 
The only people who get near him tell him so, so he pub- 
lishes the peace terms in advance and he waits for the call. 
It does not come ; he retreats to sunny climes waiting, but 
not a sound reaches that far, from that distant shore, to 
call him back to his great task of saving the world. 



WOODROW WILSON 605 

"What can you expect he must feel? lie comes back 
and says, 'Well, now, I can't see the disaster, but I am 
sure it is there. It is bound to come under these condi- 
tions. ' 

"I am prepared to make allowances, but let me say 
that when that kind of diseased vanity is carried to the 
point of sowing dissension between the great nations 
whose unity is essential to the peace and happiness of the 
world, when an attempt is made to make France distrust 
Britain, and France hate America, and America dislike 
France, and Italy quarrel with everybody, then I say that 
not even that kind of disease is justification for so black 
a crime against the world. 

"I apologize for taking up the time of the house, but 
I am bound to do so. I may tell the house why I have 
been in France for weeks. Here everybody knows, but it 
is not the same in France. They still believe in France 
that the Times is a serious organ. They do not know thai 
it is a three-penny edition of the Daily Mail, and on tin- 
continent of Europe they really have ideas that it is semi- 
official. It shows how long these traditions take to die out. 
"I want them to know I am doing this in the interests 
of good will. It is my only object in taking notice of that 
kind of trash with which these papers have been filled for 
the last weeks. 

"I have talked to many soldiers awaiting demobiliza- 
tion and the general word is— if I can just express it 
shortly— 'hurry up.' They want peace badly. I have 
heard from the French soldiers 'give us a good peace.' 
"Those who think the people of this country are out 
for revenge do not understand them. They are out for 
justice. The world wants to get back quickly 1 1 1 work and 
it wants to get to work under better conditions than it had 
before the war. I have seen now many men from many 
lands. Without exception I heard the echo of that re 
solve on the part of the workers, fixed deep in their hearts. 



606 WOODROW WILSON 

and I am proud that Britain has been the first to take 
action. 

"A profound impression is created in every country 
by the quiet way in which Britain is setting her house in 
order by conference, by conciliation, by legislation, and 
not by wild lawlessness and force, and they all say it is a 
characteristic of the British tradition. 

"A great labor orator at the labor conference on 
Friday said there are two methods of dealing with the 
situation — the Russian method and the English method. 
I felt a thrill of pride for my country. 

"It is essential that the ordinary machinery of com- 
merce and industry be set going. You can not do that 
without peace. There are men in nearly every trade with 
their hands on the lever waiting for the announcement. 
It is essential that the enormous expenditure of war 
should be cut down ruthlessly and as soon as possible. 
Peace is necessary, otherwise our effort will be squan- 
dered. 

"One of the most beneficent results will be that the 
great continental menace of armaments will be swept 
away. The country that has kept Europe armed for forty 
years is to be reduced to an army which is just adequate 
to police her cities. The fleet which was a source of terror 
to us, a hidden terror, will now be just enough to protect 
her commerce. 

1 ' But we must profit by that ; Europe must profit by 
that and not Germany alone. 

"I know there is a good deal of talk about the re- 
crudescence of the military powers of Germany. You get 
paragraphs about what Germany is going to do — that she 
is going to get on her feet again and restore her great 
armies. That is not the case. 

"With great difficulty — that is our military informa- 
tion — can she gather together 80,000 men to preserve 
order. Her guns and her weapons of offense on sea, on 
land, and in the air have been taken away. 



WOODROW WILSON 607 

"A very keen observer, who has just come from cen- 
tral Europe, told me, 'I have seen a world going to pieces, 
men helpless, half starved, benumbed. No authority, but 
no revolution, because men have no heart for it. ' 

"Two British soldiers crossing a square in Vienna 
saw a hungry child. They took out a biscuit and gave it to 
her. You have seen when you throw bits of bread on the 
ground how birds flock from every part, birds you have 
not seen before. A hundred children came from nowhere 
for food. It was with difficulty those two British soldiers 
escaped with their lives. (A member: 'The blockade 
order.') 

"That is the real danger — the gaunt specter of 
hunger stalking through the land. 

"The central powers are lying prostrate and broken 
and these movements of the Spartacists and bolsheviks 
and revolutionaries in each of these countries are the con- 
vulsions of a broken-backed creature crushed in a savage 
conflict. 

"Europe itself has suffered more in the last five 
years than ever in its whole blood-stained history. The 
lesson has been a sharper one than ever. It has been dem- 
onstrated to vaster multitudes of human beings than ever 
what war means. 

"For that reason the opportunity of organizing the 
world on a basis of peace is such as has never been pre- 
sented to the world before, and in this fateful hour it is 
the supreme duty of statesmen in every land, of parlia- 
ments on whose will the statesmen depend, and those who 
guide and direct public opinion which has the making of 
parliaments, not to soil this triumph of right by indulging 
in the angry passions of the moment, but to consecrate the 
sacrifice of millions to permanent redemption of the 
human race from the scourge and agony of war." 

While opponents of Lloyd George were attacking him 
for the delay in the peace negotiations, the enemies of the 
league of nations covenant in Washington began another 



608 WOODROW WILSON 

verbal barrage on the proposals, in the peace conference, 
that the United States establish protectorates in Armenia, 
Turkey and other out of the way corners of the world. 

It was stated by the friends of President Wilson that 
the only power which could enforce protectorates of a size 
necessary for safety would be the United States. They 
also declared that the expenses would be borne by the 
Armenians, Turks, or others to whom the protectorate 
was extended. 

The objectors replied with the assertion that it would 
be necessary for the United States to lend the necessary 
money to the protected countries and branded the finan- 
cial transaction as hazardous in the extreme. 

An incident which occurred two days after the an- 
nouncement of the indemnity to be collected showed truly 
the opinion Germany held of allied statesmanship. Food 
had been shipped into Germany according to the terms of 
the armistice, but shipments of raw materials were not 
forthcoming in payment. For that reason a conference 
was held between the trade commissions of the United 
States, France, Great Britain, Italy and Germany to dis- 
cuss the question. 

The wily Germans cleverly evaded being pinned down 
to the terms of the armistice and failed to reply to the' 
allied demands for coal, dyestuffs and wood. The out- 
come of the discussion was that the allied representatives 
were forced to withdraw from the conference with the 
knowledge that Germany would accede to their demands 
and furnish raw materials in the nature of 1,000 tons of 
tissue paper! 

On April 17th delegates from the home rule element 
in Ireland called on President "Wilson and requested that 
the Irish question be brought before the entire peace con- 
ference and settled at once. They declared that the prob- 
lem was one of sufficient moment to demand the considera- 
tion of the large nations instead of being held in abeyance 
until it could be brought before a meeting of the league. 




AMERICA AND FKAX 

PRESIDENTS WILSON AND POINCARE GOING TO THE PEACE 
CONFERENCE. 




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WOODROW WILSON 613 

President "Wilson replied that he would take the question 
into consideration and notify the Irish delegates later. 

On April 18, 1919, all Paris was busily engaged in the 
discussion of an offensive and defensive alliance between 
the United States and France. There was an erroneous 
rumor declaring that President Wilson and Clemenceau 
had arrived at an agreement whereby war would be de- 
clared at once upon the agressor of either. It was said 
that the alliance was decided upon when the French aims 
to occupy the left bank of the Rhine were frustrated in the 
peace conference. 

Coincidental with the rumor, President Wilson vis- 
ited Clemenceau and explained to him the nature of the 
Monroe Doctrine. It was at that time popularly believed 
in France that the Doctrine was retroactive and that it 
forbade the United States aiding or sympathizing with 
any European power. The French premier 's ideas were 
not altogether clear on what the Monroe Doctrine really 
was, but agreed to President Wilson's statement that the 
Doctrine meant the peace of the world in more than one 
respect. 

On the following day Marshal Foch declared, in an 
interview with a correspondent of the Daily Mail in Paris, 
that the left bank of the Rhine must be guarded against 
further German activities or France would be in further 
danger of a German attack, in which the German founded 
Bolshevist government of Russia probably would aid. His 
statements had a direct effect on the delegates at the con- 
ference and brought about further consideration of 
French needs. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
THE ITALIAN EMBROGLIO. 

The Berlin cabinet met on April 19th to formulate a 
reply to the invitation from the Paris conference calling 
the German peace emissaries to Berlin. A general feel- 
ing of gloom prevailed and there were no illusions that the 
emissaries would be able to obtain any mitigation of the 
terms. It was announced through the German press that 
the- emissaries would be instructed to obtain the treaty 
and return to Germany, where the cabinet would pass on 
the document. The statement caused indignation in Paris 
and one of the delegates declared no subordinate emissary 
would receive recognition. 

The following day, when the conference again con- 
vened, a row developed over Italy's demand for Fiume on 
the Adriatic. A delicate situation developed over the 
rival claims of the Jugo-Slavs, with some of the delegates 
contending that Italy's demand should take precedence 
in view of the fact that the inhabitants of Fiume already 
had declared their willingness to come under Italian rule 
and for the further fact that the Jugo-Slav element prac- 
tically had been enemies of the Allies up to the moment 
the armistice was signed with Austria. 

Orlando, the Italian premier, declared that strict 
adherence to the Treaty of London would be maintained 
by the Italians. President Wilson's retort was that the 
American soldiers did not cross the ocean to fight for the 
Treaty of London. The tendency of the committee of the 
big four to delay the proceedings failed when Orlando 
declared the question was pressing and that a definite 
settlement would have to be made before Italy would sign 
a treaty of peace. 

614 



WOODROW WILSON 615 

On April 21st the Italian delegates failed to attend 
the afternoon session of the peace conference, and the 
situation was growing more serious with the passing 
hours. In spite of the hope that an amicable adjustment 
of the Fiume dispute would be made, there was no official 
statement forthcoming from the conference. 

The portion of the Treaty of London on which the 
Italian delegation based its demands reads : 

"Article 4 — Under the future treaty of peace Italy 
shall receive the district of Trentino; the entire southern 
Tyrol to its natural geographic boundary, the Brenner; 
the city and suburbs of Trieste, Gorizia, and Gradisha, all 
of Istria to Quarnero, including Voloski and the Istrian 
islands of Cherso and Lussino, and also the smaller 
islands of Piavanik, Union, Kanidol, Palamuolo, St. Peter 
Nevmeiski, Azinello, Grutzo, together with the neighbor- 
ing islands. 

[This is the article dealing directly with the region to 
which Fiume lies adjacent. The line of demarkation is 
clearly drawn west of Fiume by the specific mention of 
Voloski and the Istrian islands of Cherso and Lussino. 
Fiume is not mentioned and also the island of Veglia lying 
near to the Croatian coast is omitted.] 

"Article 5 — In the same manner Italy is to receive 
the province of Dalmatia in its present form with the in- 
clusion within its limit on the north of Lissariki and the 
Trebino, and on the south of all lands to a line drawn at 
Cape Plank to the east along the watershed in such a man- 
ner that in the Italian domain shall be included all the 
valleys along the rivers flowing into Sebiniki— that is, 
Chicollo, Kerka and Butisnitza, with all their brand 

"In the same way Italy is to receive all the islands 
located to the north and west of the shores of Dalmatia, 
beginning with Premud, Selva, Ulbo, Skerd, Maori Pago 
and Puntadura, and farther to the north and to Meled on 
the south, with inclusion therein of the Lslands oi St. 
Andrew, Buzzi, Lissi, Lessino, Terkol, Kurzoll, Kaiaa and 



616 WOODROW WILSON 

Lagosta, with all the islands and bluffs belonging to them, 
as well as Palagozza, but without the islands of Great and 
Little Oziren, Bui, Solt and Bratz. 

"Article 6 — Italy is to receive in full right Vallon, 
the islands of Sassono and a territory sufficiently exten- 
sive to safeguard them from the military standpoint, ap- 
proximately between the River Voyuss on the north and 
the east and to the boundaries of Schimar district to the 
south. 

"Article 7 — On receiving Trentino and Istria, Dal- 
matia and the Adriatic islands, in accordance with Article 
5, and the Bay of Vallon, Italy is obligated, in the event 
of the formation in Albania of a small autonomous 
neutralized state, not to oppose the possible desire of 
France, Great Britain and Russia to redistribute among 
Montenegro, Serbia and Greece the northern and south- 
ern districts of Albania. 

1 ' The southern shore of Albania, from the boundary 
of the Italian district of Vallon to the Cape of Stilos, is 
Bubject to neutralization." 

The German cabinet at this point sent a message to 
Paris stating that the allied invitation to the German 
emissaries had been received and accepted, and that they 
could be expected in Paris on April 28th. The German 
delegation was made up of Count von Brockdorfr*- 
Rantzau, foreign minister; Herr Landsberg, secretary 
for publicity, art and literature; Dr. Theodor Melchior, 
general manager of the Warburg bank; Herr Leinert, 
president of the Prussian assembly and of the national 
soviet congress; Herr Geisberg, minister of posts and 
telegraphs ; and Herr Schuecking. 

Immediately on the receipt of the German reply work- 
men were sent to prepare the Hotel des Reservoirs, for- 
merly the home of the Marquise de Pompadour, for their 
reception. A wire enclosure was constructed to safe- 
guard the Germans from attacks by the Parisians, who 
retained vivid memories of the days when bombs and 



WOODROW WILSON 617 

artillery shells hurtled down on their historic city, killing 
scores of women and children. 

Further complications in the proceedings came on 
April 21st, when the demand of the Japanese that a racial 
equality clause be included in the league of nations 
covenant. It was peremptorily refused. The feeling in 
Tokyo was running high at the time and there was no 
hesitancy on the part of Japanese newspapers to de- 
nounce the action of the committee of the big four. The 
Japan Times declared : 

"The refusal of the august congress of white peoples 
to accept the principle of equality of nonwhites probably 
will erect a perpetual barrier to the harmonious com- 
mingling of the races toward which it was believed the 
world was tending. It can only tend to accentuate racial 
prejudices, which will far from realize President Wil- 
son's ideal lasting peace. 

"It is well for Japan to remember this point. The 
only way of sustaining Japan's prestige must be sought 
in preparedness to cope with international situations as 
they develop. Peace on earth and good will toward men 
must be considered as still very distant. " 

The oriental situation was further complicated by the 
wrangling between the Japanese and Chinese delegates 
over the presence in Tsing Tau of Japanese troops and 
the Japanese demands that the Shantung Peninsula be 
given to Japan for her part in the war. Charles A. Selden, 
Paris correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, described 
the situation in a dispatch, which read: 

"Japan is fighting to get admittedly Chinese terri- 
tory as a reward for letting China enter the war. Japan 
bases her case on the secret agreement made by England, 
France, Italy and Russia in February, 1917, that they 
would support Japan's claim at the prospective pi 
conference to the German islands north of the equator in 
the Pacific and to Chinese territory in Shantung from 
which Germany has been ousted. 



618 WOODROW WILSON 

" Evidence that these promises were given to Japan 
is contained in the hitherto unpublished diplomatic notes 
which are part of this cable dispatch. 

"Neither President Wilson nor the Chinese delegates 
knew of the existence of these secret agreements when 
they came to Paris. The disclosure was first made to Mr. 
Wilson at a meeting of the council when the question of 
the mandatory system as suggested by the American 
President was first under discussion. 

"It was then proposed that the German islands be 
disposed of by placing them under mandates. It was an 
awkward moment. Premier Lloyd George remarked that 
an arrangement of a definite character had already been 
reached with reference to the islands. Mr. Wilson asked 
what it was. Mr. Lloyd George turned to the Japanese 
delegate, Baron Makino, whereupon Mr. Wilson was in- 
formed that Japan had been promised by England, 
France, Italy and Russia two years before that she should 
have outright all the islands north of the equator and that 
she had agreed that Australia have all south of the 
equator. 

"The reason of China 's failure to become a par- 
ticipant makes an interesting phase to the whole Asiatic 
question. China was barred out in the early part of hos- 
tilities because Japan had no desire to let China par- 
ticipate in the military task of recovering her own ter- 
ritory in the Shantung province from the Germans at 
Kiachow. 

"Again in November, 1915, China tried to enter the 
contest, as desired by European powers. On that occa- 
sion, Ishii, then Japanese minister of foreign affairs, said 
to the European ambassadors in Tokio : 

1 i ' Japan could not view without apprehension the 
moral awakening of 400,000,000 Chinese which would re- 
sult from their entering the war. ' 

"China did not dare to act contrary to the wishes of 



WOODROW WILSON 619 

Japan, for she knew Europe could not help her in case of 
need and she feared Japanese aggression. But another 
opportunity came to China early in 1917 when the United 
States broke diplomatic relations with Germany and in- 
vited all the neutral countries to follow her example. Then 
Japan, like the rest of the world, realized America would 
soon become an active belligerent and that the defeat of 
Germany was no longer a matter of doubt. 

"Japan also realized then she could no longer keep 
China neutral, so Motono, then Japanese minister of for 
eign affairs, immediately set to work to insure Japan's 
position in the peace conference in anticipation of China 
herself being represented at that conference to plead her 
own case. 

"Motono first took up the matter with the British 
ambassador at Tokio. The ambassador's reply was the 
following letter : 

" 'The British Embassy at Tokio, Feb. 16, 1917.— My 
dear excellency: "With reference to the subject of our con- 
versation of the 27th ultimo, when your excellency in- 
formed me of the desire of the imperial government to 
receive an assurance that, in the occasion of a peace con- 
ference, his Britannic majesty's government will support 
the claims of Japan in regard to the disposal of Ger- 
many's rights in Shantung and the possession in the 
islands north of the equator, I have the honor, under in- 
struction received from his Britannic majesty's principal 
secretary of state for foreign affairs, to communicate t.» 
you the following message from his Britannic majesty's 
government : 

"'His Britannic majesty's government accedes with 
pleasure to the request of the Japanese government for 
an assurance that they will support Japan'.- claims m 
regard to the disposal of Germany's rights in Shantung 
and possession in the islands north of the equat6r on the 
occasion of the peace conference, it being understood that 
the Japanese government will in the eventual peace settle- 



620 WOODROW WILSON 

ment treaty in the same spirit admit Great Britain's claim 
to the German islands south of the equator. 

" ' Conymhan Green. 
" 'His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador.' 

"In his reply to the above communication from 
British Ambassador Green, after the usual diplomatic 
exchange of courtesies, Ishii wrote : 

1 ' ' The Japanese government is deeply appreciative 
of the friendly spirit in which your government has given 
assurance and are happy to note it as a fresh proof of the 
close ties that unite the two allied powers. 

11 'I take pleasure in stating that the Japanese gov- 
ernment on its part is fully prepared to support in the 
spirit the claims which may be put forward at the peace 
conference by his Britannic majesty's government in re- 
gard to the German possessions in the islands south of 
the equator.' 

''The date of Montono's above reply to Green is Feb- 
ruary 21, 1917. On February 19, Montono wrote identic 
notes to the Eussian and French ambassadors at Tokio, as 
follows : 

"'The imperial Japanese government has not yet 
formally entered into conversations with the entente pow- 
ers concerning the conditions of peace I propose to pre- 
sent to Germany because it is guided by the thought that 
such questions ought to be decided in concert between 
Japan and the said powers at the moment when the peace 
negotiations begin. 

" 'Nevertheless, in view of the recent development of 
the general situation and in view of particular arrange- 
ments concerning peace conditions, such as the arrange- 
ments relative to the disposition of the Bosporus, Con- 
stantinople and the Dardanelles, being already under dis- 
cussion by the powers interested, the imperial Japanese 
government believes the moment has come for it also to 
express its desires relative to certain conditions of peace 



WOODROW WILSON 621 

essential to Japan and to submit them for the considera- 
tion of the government of the French republic. 

" 'Under these conditions the imperial Japanese gov- 
ernment proposes to demand from Germany at the time 
of peace negotiations the surrender of territorial rights 
Germany possessed before the war in Shantung and the 
islands situated north of the equator in the Pacific ocean. 

" 'The imperial Japanese government confidently 
hopes the government of the French republic, realizing 
the legitimacy of these demands, will give assurance that 
Japan may count upon their full support in this question. 

" 'It goes without saying that the reparation for 
damages caused to life and property of the Japanese 
people by the unjustifiable attacks of the enemy, as well 
as other conditions of peace of a character common to all 
the entente powers, are entirely outside the consideration 
of the present question.' 

"Twelve days later the French ambassador repli<'<l 
to the Japanese foreign office as follows ; 

1 1 1 iji^ e government of the French republic is disposed 
to give the Japanese government its accord in regulating, 
at the time of the peace negotiations, questions vital to 
Japan concerning Shantung and the German islands in 
the Pacific north of the equator. It also agrees to support 
the demands of the imperial Japanese government for 
the surrender of the rights Germany possessed before the 
war in this Chinese province and these islands. 

"'M. Briands demands, on the other hand, that 
Japan give its support to obtain from China the breaking 
of its diplomatic relations with Germany and that it give 
this act desirable significance. 

" 'The consequences of this in China should !><• the 
following : 

" 'First, the handing of passports to the German dip- 
lomatic agents and consuls. 

" 'Second, the obligation of all under German juris- 
diction to leave Chinese territory. 



622 WOODROW WILSON 

1 1 1 Third, the internment of German ships in Chinese 
ports and ultimate requisition of these ships in order to 
place them at the disposition of the Allies, following the 
example of Italy and Portugal. According to the in- 
formation of the French government, there are fifteen 
German ships in Chinese ports, totaling about 40,000 
tons. 

" 'Fourth, the requisition of German commercial 
houses established in China. Forfeiting the right of Ger- 
many in the concessions she possesses in certain parts 
of China.'" 

At the meeting of the conference on April 22nd the 
tense situation brought about by Italy's determination to 
obtain Fiume continued, with President Wilson unalter- 
ably opposed to the move. At the same time it was an- 
nounced that hearings on the Japan-China controversy 
over their respective rights on the Shantung peninsula 
would be postponed indefinitely as the question con- 
cerned only the two nations. It was made clear, how- 
ever, that German rights would be terminated by the 
peace treaty. 

For several days rumors were growing steadily of 
German discontent with the terms of the peace treaty 
which had reached Berlin through unofficial channels. 
The Berlin newspapers declared that it would be impos- 
sible for Germany to sign a peace which went beyond the 
fourteen points laid down by President Wilson, and insin- 
uated that the treaty presented would be torn up. An 
American correspondent declared the German policy 
was the same that brought the United States into the war, 
and said the German delegates were preparing to wreck 
the allied peace machine on their arrival in Paris. 

Among those who loudly denounced the allied method 
of procedure was Prince Lichnowsky. He presented a 
signed statement to Richard Henry Little of the Chicago 
Tribune which read: 

" At the outbreak of the world war, for which neither 



WOODROW WILSON 628 

the German people nor the reichstag were responsible, 
but only the stupidity of the chancellors, Caprivi, Prince 
Buelow, and Von Bethmann-Holhveg, with their mistaken 
policy of going with Austria instead of with Russia, or 
England, there were but few Germans who did not accept 
Von Bethmann-Hollweg's and the kaiser's theory that the 
war was forced upon Germany. 

"Neither our people nor our parliament had been con- 
sulted or let into the secret; they were simply faced with 
the unaccomplished fact and had to join in the false en- 
thusiasm for war or take the odium of being denounced 
as unpatriotic. The German people as such would never 
have voted for the war against such heavy odds under- 
taken with no better motive than saving the military 
honor of the weak and misled Iiapsburg monarchy. 

"At present, unfortunately, our enemies are pro- 
ceeding in their peace preliminaries on the mistaken prin- 
ciple that the German people had a real share in the 
responsibility of our now discredited leaders, so in the 
judgment of our enemies our people should receive 
condign punishment. 

"As a logical conclusion our enemies, particularly 
France, are demanding safeguards against a future 
breach of the peace, notwithstanding the fact our new 
democratic form of government is in itself a safeguard 
against future wars brewed by secret diplomacy and irre- 
sponsible cabinets. Our opponents forget any other sa fe- 
guards are bound to create a new casus belli. 

"Any peace treaty founded on force alone and result- 
ing in the loss of independence and territory which may 
form an integral part of the beaten nation must needs 
call for a further measure of force wherewith to uphold 
such peace. 

"In the same manner that our German annexation- 
ists during the war demanded the whole coast of Flanders 
or even that of Belgium and northern France, while the 



624 WOODROW WILSON 

more modest ones spoke only of Briey basin or the Cour- 
land, so imperialism nowadays is lifting its head in Paris. 
The only wonder is that the French plans of annexation 
stop at the Rhine, instead of reaching all the way to the 
Elbe. Then the rest of Germany might fall to Poland. 
That would be in accordance with the old frontiers under 
Charlemagne and Emperor Otho. 

1 'If Poland can now claim a right to Danzig, then the 
Czechs might claim an analogous right to Hamburg. Why 
not? Both cities are old Hanseatic ports, and Hamburg 
lies at the mouth of the Elbe, just as Danzig lies at the 
mouth of the Weser. In order to be independent from 
Germany, Bohemia needs Hamburg and needs a strip of 
Bohemian land along the Elbe all the way to Hamburg. 

"The Polish question cannot be satisfactorily solved, 
if the entente allies really insist on making an independent 
buffer state out of Poland instead of incorporating Po- 
land, like the Ukraine, Lithuania, and Courland, into the 
United States of Russia, which are bound to come once 
bolshevism shall have collapsed. For new Russia will 
certainly never content herself with her old frontiers of 
the time of Peter the Great without access to the sea. In 
the same way new Germany will never be contented with 
the dismemberment of the old German empire with a zig- 
zag frontier toward Poland and Bohemia inviting future 
aggression. 

"In regard to Alsace-Lorraine we have a right to 
demand that its inhabitants should proceed with self- 
determination as proclaimed by President Wilson. If 
France does not let the people there determine their own 
fate, then we surely have no occasion to admit the prin- 
ciple of self-determination on our eastern and northern 
frontiers since such an unjust discrimination would mean 
a peace of force and not of justice. If such a peace is 
imposed on us, then we cannot but regard all the talk 
about the league of nations founded on the principles of 
justice as mere hollow sand. 



WOODROW WILSON 625 

"What we want and what we shall demand at the 
peace parleys is self-determination, not self -mutilation." 

Mathias Erzberger, head of the German armistice 
commission, was more temperate in his statements. He 
disapproved of the suggested Germanic alliance against 
the Anglo-Saxons (the United States and Great Britain) 
on the ground that such a union would be a blow at the 
league of nations. He denounced the authors of the move- 
ment and said they represented the old Junker party 
which had brought about the war. It was also announced 
in Berlin that the German peace emissaries would pro- 
pose a revised plan for a league of nations to replace the 
document prepared by President Wilson and practically 
adopted by the conference. 

On April 23rd, the Italian delegates peremptorily 
quit the peace conference and announced their intention 
to return to Rome at once. The news created a profound 
disturbance among the other delegates, but no comment 
was made while all eyes were turned to President Wilson, 
whose opposition to the Italian claims had precipitated 
the rupture. In support of his stand he issued the fol- 
lowing statement: 

"In view of the capital importance of the questions 
affected, and in order to throw all possible light upon 
what is involved in their settlement, I hope that the fol- 
lowing statement will contribute to the final formation 
of opinion and to a satisfactory solution. 

"When Italy entered the war she entered upon the 
basis of a definite private understanding with Great Brit- 
ain and France, now known as the pact of London. Since 
that time the whole face of circumstances has been alt. Ted. 
Many other powers, great and small, have entered the 
struggle with no knowledge of that private understanding. 

"The Austro-Hungarian empire, then the enemy of 
Europe, and at whose expense the pact of London was to 
be kept in the event of victory, has -one to pieces and no 
longer exists. Not only that, but the several parts of that 



626 WOODROW WILSON 

empire, it is agreed now by Italy and all her associates, 
are to be erected into independent states and associated 
in a league of nations, not with those who were recently 
our enemies, but with Italy herself and the powers that 
stood with Italy in the great war for liberty. 

' 'We are to establish their liberty as well as our own. 
They are to be among the smaller states whose interests 
are henceforth to be safeguarded as scrupulously as the 
interests of the most powerful states. 

' ' The war was ended, moreover, by proposing to Ger- 
many an armistice and peace which should be founded 
on certain clearly defined principles which set up a new 
order of right and justice. Upon those principles the 
peace with Germany has been conceived not only but for- 
mulated. Upon those principles it will be effected. 

u We cannot ask the great body of powers to propose 
and effect peace with Austria and establish a new basis 
of independence and right in the states which originally 
constituted the Austro-Hungarian empire and in the 
states of the Balkan group on principles of another kind. 
We must apply the same principles to the settlement of 
Europe in those quarters that we have applied in the 
peace with Germany. 

"It was upon the explicit avowal of those principles 
that the initiative for peace was taken. It is upon them 
that the whole structure of peace must rest. 

"If those principles are to be adhered to, Fiume must 
serve as the outlet of the commerce, not of Italy, but of 
the land to the north and northeast of that part : Hungary, 
Bohemia, Roumania, and the states of the new Jugo-Slav 
group. To assign Fiume to Italy would be to create the 
feeling that we have deliberately put the port upon which 
all those countries chiefly depend for their access to the 
Mediterranean in the hands of a power of which it did 
not form an integral part and whose sovereignty, if set 
up there, must inevitably seem foreign, not domestic or 
identified with the commercial and industrial life of the 



WOODROW WILSON 627 

regions which the port must serve. It is for that reason, 
no doubt, that Fiume was not included in the pad of Lon- 
don, but there definitely assigned to the Croatians. 

''And the reason why the line of the pact of London 
swept about many of the islands on the eastern coast 
of the Adriatic and around the portion of the Dalmatian 
coast which lies most open to that sea was not only that 
here and there on those islands, and hen' and there on 
that coast, there are bodies of people of Italian blood and 
connection, but also, and no doubt chiefly, because it was 
felt that it was necessary for Italy to have a foothold 
amidst the channels of the eastern Adriatic in order that 
she might make her own coasts safe against the naval 
aggression of Austria-Hungary. 

"But Austria-Hungary no longer exists. It is pro- 
posed that the fortifications which the Austrian govern- 
ment constructed there shall be razed and permanently 
destroyed. 

"It is part also of the new plan of European order 
which centers in the league of nations that the new states 
erected there shall accept a limitation of armaments, 
which puts aggression out of the question. There can be 
no fear of the unfair treatment of groups of Italian people 
there, because adequate guarantees will be given, under 
international sanction, of the equal and equitable treat- 
ment of all racial or national minorities. 

"In brief, every question associated with this settle- 
ment wears a new aspect — a new aspect given it by tin- 
very victory for right for which Italy has made the su- 
preme sacrifice of blood and treasure. Italy, along with 
the four other great powers, has become one of the chief 
trustees of the new order which she has played so hon- 
orable a part in establishing. 

"And on the north and northeast her natural fron- 
tiers are completely restored, along with the whole Bweep 
of the Alps from northwest to southeast to the wry end 
of the Istrian peninsula, including all the great water 



628 WOODROW WILSON 

shed within which Triest and Pola lie, and all the fair 
regions whose face nature has turned towards the great 
peninsula upon which the historic life of the Latin people 
has been worked out through centuries of famous story 
ever since Rome was first set upon her seven hills. 

"Her ancient unity is restored. Her lines are ex- 
tended to the great walls which are her natural defense. 
It is within her choice to be surrounded by friends; to 
exhibit to the newly liberated peoples across the Adriatic 
that noblest quality of greatness, magnanimity, friendly 
generosity, the preference of justice over interest. 

"The nations associated with her, the nations that 
knew nothing of the pact of London or of any other 
special understanding that existed at the beginning of 
this great struggle, and who have made their supreme sac- 
rifice also in the interest, not of national advantage or 
defense, but of the settled peace of the world, are now 
united with her older associates in urging her to assume 
a leadership which cannot be mistaken in the new order 
of Europe. 

"America is Italy's friend. Her people are drawn, 
millions strong, from Italy's own fair countrysides. She 
is linked in blood, as well as in affection, with the Italian 
people. Such ties can never be broken. And America was 
privileged, by the generous commission of her associates 
in the war, to initiate the peace we are about a consum- 
mate — to initiate it upon terms which she had herself 
formulated and in which I was her spokesman. 

"The compulsion is upon her to square every deci- 
sion she takes a part in with those principles. She can 
do nothing else. She trusts Italy, and in her trust be- 
lieves that Italy will ask nothing of her that cannot be 
made unmistakably consistent with those sacred obli- 
gations. 

1 ' The interests are not now in question, but the rights 
of peoples, of states new and old, of liberated peoples and 
peoples whose rulers have never accounted them worthy 




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WOODROW WILSON 633 

of a right; above all, the right of the world to peace and 
to such settlements of interest as shall make peace secure, 
are in question. 

"These, and these only, are the principles for which 
America has fought. These, and these only, are the prin- 
ciples upon which she can consent to make peace. Only 
upon these principles, she hopes and believes, will the 
people of Italy ask her to make peace. ' ' 

_ Lloyd George and Clemenceau at that time did not 
hesitate to make their positions clear in the controversy. 
Both declared they were ready to stand behind the Treaty 
of London to which emissaries of both their nations had 
affixed their signatures. They urged the Italian emis- 
saries to propose arbitration in which Fiume would be 
left out of the problem. This they resolutely declined 
to do. 

It was suggested that Italy accept the proposition 
of President Wilson to make the city of Fiume interna- 
tional territory, but the Italians declared they were will- 
ing to internationalize the port on condition the city was 
made Italian territory. 

It was declared by several of the delegates that there 
was merit in the Italian demands. The people of Fiume 
had indicated by an overwhelming vote that the prepon- 
derance of the population was Italian in blood and sym- 
pathy and that they were anxious for Italian rule. It was 
admitted that the Jugo- Slavs in the United States had 
fought for democracy in the armies of the allies, but it 
also was charged that many more fought in the armies 
of Austria. Italy feared a return of Austrian policy 
dictated by Berlin . 'J 

The entire controversy led to a bitter dispute in the 
United States between the leaders of the Italian and 
Jugo-Slavonian parties. The Jugo-Slavs were elated at 
the action of President Wilson, while the Italian- were 
bitterly disappointed. 

The announcement of the rupture between the Italian 



'634 WOODROW WILSON 

emissaries and President Wilson caused apprehension in 
London. The London Chronicle voiced public opinion as 
follows : 

"Whatever be 'the thought of the merits of the ques- 
tion, it must be admitted Wilson's appeal from the diplo- 
matic table to the general public of the world is a very 
grave innovation. It may at first sight commend itself 
as consonant with democratic statesmanship, but it is 
obvious that none of the negotiating statesmen, including 
President Wilson, hitherto understood democratic states- 
manship in that sense. On the contrary, their practice in 
negotiating all other questions has been extremely secre- 
tive, too secretive, as we often urged, but the results of 
making the exception to the practice in Italy's case is evi- 
dently to create danger for the whole league of nations. 

"Either the Italian statesmen will reply by a counter 
manifesto and the most delicate issue is frankly trans- 
ferred to the novel arbitrament of uninstructed public 
opinion of the two hemispheres — not exactly a tribunal 
whose verdicts will command permanent acceptance — or 
else the Italians may walk out. 

"In either case the league of nations, which required 
a hearty concurrence of at least all the five great powers 
represented at Paris if it is to become living reality, may 
find its existence otherwise than on paper practically 
terminated before it begun." 

On April 24th, 1919, Premier Orlando issued a state- 
ment in answer to President Wilson, charging the Presi- 
dent with an attempt to turn the Italian people against 
their government. Orlando's statement read: 

"Yesterday, while the Italian delegation was discus- 
sing counter propositions which had been received from 
the British prime minister and which had for their aim 
the conciliation of contradictory tendencies which were 
manifest concerning Italian territorial aspirations, the 
Paris newspapers published a message from the president 
of the United States in which he expressed his own 



WOODBOW WILSON 635 

thought on one of the gravest problems which have been 
submitted to the judgment of the conference. 

"The practice of addressing nations directly consti- 
tutes surely an innovation in international relations. I do 
not wish to complain, but I wish to record it as a precedent 
so that at my own time I may follow it, inasmuch as this 
new custom doubtless constitutes the granting to nations 
of larger participations in international questions, and, 
personally, I have always been of the opinion that such 
participation was the harbinger of a new order of things. 

"Nevertheless, if these appeals are to be considered 
as addresses to nations outside of the governments which 
represent them (I might say even against the govern- 
ments) I should feel deep regret in recalling that this 
process, heretofore applied to enemy governments, is to- 
day applied for the first time to a government which has 
been and intends to remain a loyal ally of the great Ameri- 
can republic, namely, to the Italian government. 

"Above all, I should have the right to complain if 
the declarations of the presidential message have the pur- 
pose to oppose the Italian people to the Italian govern- 
ment, because it would misconstrue and deny the high 
degree of civilization which the Italian people has at- 
tained and its democratic and liberal regime. To oppose 
the Italian people and government would be to admit that 
this great free nation would submit to the yoke of a will 
other than its own, and I should be forced to protest 
strongly against suppositions unjustly offensive to my 
country. 

"I consider as unjustified the application that, in Ins 
statement, President Wilson makes of his principles to- 
ward the Italian claim. It is impossible for me in a docu- 
ment of this nature to repeat the detailed arguments 
which have been produced in Italy's behalf. I mighl 
simply say that no one will receive without reserve th< 
affirmation that the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian 
empire should imply the reduction of Italian aspirations. 



636 WOODROW WILSON 

"This recognition is of great importance, provided 
the eastern flank of the wall does not remain open and 
that the right of Italy should be interpreted to include the 
line of Mont Nevoso, which separates the waters running 
toward the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. 

"Without this protection a dangerous breach is left 
in this admirable barrier of the Alps, rupturing the un- 
questionable political, economic, and historical unity of 
the Istrian peninsula. I contend, furthermore, that he 
who is entitled to the honor of proclaiming to the world 
the right of the free determination of peoples should rec- 
ognize this right for Fiume, an ancient Italian city which 
proclaimed its Italian nature before the Italian ships 
arrived, an admirable example of national conscience 
perpetuated throughout centuries. 

' ' To deny this right only because of the small number 
concerned would mean the admission that the criterion 
of justice toward peoples varies according to their terri- 
torial extent. 

"It is impossible to qualify as excessive the Italian 
aspirations toward the Dalmatian coast, Italy's boulevard 
throughout centuries, which Soman genius and Venetian 
activity made noble and grand, and whose Italian charac- 
ter, defying for centuries implacable persecutions, still 
shares the same thrill of patriotism with the Italian 
people. 

"The presidential message ends with a warm dec- 
laration of America's friendship for Italy. I reply in the 
name of the Italian people and proudly claim the right 
and honor to do this as one who, in the most tragic hour 
of this war, proclaimed the cry of resistance at all costs. 
This cry was heard and replied to with courage and abne- 
gation, of which there are few more striking examples in 
the world's history. 

"Italy, thanks to the most heroic sacrifices and purest 
blood of her children, was able to ascend from the abyss 
of misfortunes to the radiant crest of most glorious vie- 



WOODROW WILSON 637 

tory. In the name, therefore, of Italy, I express with all 
my power the sentiment of admiration and profound 
sympathy which the Italian people profess toward the 
American people." 

Although there was much criticism in Paris over the 
determined stand of President Wilson, many of the other 
diplomats at the conference were satisfied with bis method 
of procedure. The decision regarding Fiume had a direct 
bearing on the Japanese racial equality question that 
could not be ignored. In spite of Great Britain's alliance 
with the Nipponese empire, the American stand was im- 
portant so far as it affected Canada, New Zealand and 
Australia — an importance that could not be ignored by 
Great Britain. 

While the question was being debated at length in 
official and unofficial circles, the Mexican government an- 
nounced the repudiation of the Monroe Doctrine. The 
announcement caused considerable merriment in all the 
capitals as Mexico had never been called upon to indorse 
it. It was a United States tenet, pure and simple, which 
protected Mexico with or without her acquiescence. The 
Mexicans were irritated at the delay to which their envoys 
to France had been subjected by the French government, 
which thus far had failed to recognize them. The Mexican 
contingent was ordered to proceed to Spain and there 
await orders from its government. 

An announcement in Paris on April 24th that the 
Austro-Hungarian navy had been turned over to the new 
Jugo-Slav government added to the confusion created 
by Italy 's refusal to remain in the peace conference. T 1 1 . ■ 
official proclamation from Vienna read: 

"The minister of war, section of the navy, communi- 
cates: By sovereign resolution it is ordered as follows: 

"To all the rank and file not belonging to the Jngo- 
Slav nationality permission to return to the mother 
country and permanent discharge may be granted upon 
demand. 



638 WOODROW WILSON 

"The fleet and naval establishment will be consigned 
successively to the Jugo-Slav national council of Zagabria 
at Pola through the local committee. It shall be the duty 
of the imperial and royal (i. e. r.) authorities and institu- 
tions making the transfer expressly to make the right to 
possession of the non-Jugo-Slav nations effective accord- 
ing to the protocol under the regulations which shall be 
carried out at the proper time. 

"The exchange of flags not being practicable for 
international reasons immediately after the consignment 
to the Jugo-Slav national council, no difficulties shall be 
raised if emblems of distinguishing nationality are hoisted 
near a vessel of war. Every permanent and free person 
is to remain in service on board the units of the fleet, and 
under its authorities after its regular consignment to 
the Jugo-Slav national council. 

"The minister of war, section of the navy, will send 
a delegate to the Jugo-Slav national council of Zagabria 
to determine on the final details. The imperial and royal 
naval authorities and the commands shall take charge of 
maintaining calm and order and of regulating the trans- 
ports. Orders will be given to the command of the Danube 
flotilla to proceed in the same way with the transfer of 
the flotilla to the royal Hungarian government." 

Rome was in a seething condition following the an- 
nouncement that the Italian emissaries had withdrawn 
from the peace conference. The Italian press backed the 
stand of Orlando and declared that the Italian army 
backed the Italian demands. An announcement was made 
by a military attache of Orlando's staff that the Italian 
army would occupy Fiume and other parts of Dalmatia. 
The statement caused grave apprehension in Paris and 
London as the city was the headquarters of the British 
and French armies in that region, and the Ju go- Slavs had 
announced that military demonstrations would be held. 

All Italy stood united behind Orlando and the other 
delegates in their desertion of the peace conference. On 



WOODROW WILSON 639 

his arrival in Rome Orlando went into conference with 
King Victor Emanuel and explained the attitude of Presi- 
dent Wilson and the premiers of France and Great 
Britain. Crowds surged through the streets shouting 
"Long live Italy." The Italian newspapers were vehe 
ment in their denunciation of the other members of the 
committee of the big four. 

While the withdrawal of the Italian delegates was 
being discussed in the allied capitals, the vanguard of the 
German emissaries arrived in Paris. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. 

In spite of the Italian attitude toward the conference 
and the proposed allotment of Fiume to the Jugo-Slavs, 
the opinion in Paris on April 27th was that the question 
would be settled amicably and all attention was turned to 
the wrangle between Japan and China over the Shantung 
peninsula, which had been suddenly revived. The British 
delegates did not hesitate to admit their desire to break 
off the secret treaty between Great Britain and Japan 
and take refuge in a league of nations covenant which 
would allow them a safe retreat in case of war between 
Japan and China over the peninsula. 

On the same day the league of nations committee 
announced that the revised form of the covenant was pre- 
pared for submission to the legislative bodies of the 
nations represented at the conference. Its text, with notes 
illustrating the changes made in the first draft, follows : 

Preamble 

In order to promote international cooperation and to 
achieve international peace and security, by the accep- 
tance of obligations not to resort to war, by the prescrip- 
tion of open, just, and honorable relations between 
nations, by the firm establishment of the understand- 
ings of international law as to actual rule of conduct 
among governments, and by the maintenance of justice 
and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the 
dealings of organized peoples with one another, the high 
contracting parties agree to this covenant of the league 
of nations. 

640 



WOODROW WILSON 641 

[In the original preamble the last sentence read 
"adopt this constitution" instead of "agree to this 
covenant."] 

Article I 

The original members of the league of nations shall 
be those of the signatories which are named in the annex 
to this covenant and also such of those other states named 
in the annex as shall accede without reservation to this 
covenant. Such accessions shall be effected by a declara- 
tion deposited with the secretariat within two months of 
the coming into force of the covenant. Notice thereof 
shall be sent to all other members of the league. 

Any fully self-governing state, dominion, or colony 
not named in the annex, may become a member of the 
league if its admission is agreed upon by two-thirds of 
the assembly, provided that it shall give effective guaran- 
tees of its sincere intention to observe its international 
obligations and shall accept such regulations as may be 
prescribed by the league in regard to its military and 
naval force and armaments. 

Any member of the league may, after two years ' no- 
tice of its intention so to do, withdraw from the league, 
provided that all its international obligations and all its 
obligations under this covenant shall have been fulfilled 
at the time of its withdrawal. 

[This article is new, embodying with alterations and 
additions the old article VII. It provides more specific- 
ally the method of admitting new members and adds the 
entirely new paragraph providing for withdrawal from 
the league. No mention of withdrawal was made in the 
original document.] 

Article II 

The action of the league under this covenant shall 
be effected through the instrumentality of an assembly 
and of a council, with permanent secretariat. 

[Originally this was a part of Article I. It gives the 



642 WOODROW WILSON 

name assembly to the gathering of representatives of the 
members of the league, formerly referred to merely as 
"the body of delegates."] 

Aeticle III. 

The assembly shall consist of representatives of the 
members of the league. 

The assembly shall meet at stated intervals and from 
time to time as occcasion may require, at the seat of the 
league, or at such other place as may be decided upon. 

The assembly may deal at its meetings with any mat- 
ter within the sphere of action of the league or affecting 
the peace of the world. 

At meetings of the assembly, each member of the 
league shall have one vote, and may have not more than 
three representatives. 

[This embodies parts of the original Articles I, II, 
and III, with only minor changes. It refers to "members 
of the league, ' ' where the term ' ' high contracting parties ' ' 
originally was used, and this change is followed through- 
out the revised draft.] 

Akticle IV 

The council shall consist of representatives of the 
United States of America, of the British empire, of 
France, of Italy, and of Japan, together with representa- 
tives of four other members of the league. These four 
members of the league shall be selected by the assembly 
from time to time in its discretion. Until the appointment 
of the representatives of the four members of the league 

first selected by the assembly, representatives of 

shall be members of the council. 

With the approval of the majority of the assembly 
the council may name additional members of the league 
whose representatives shall always be members of the 
council; the council with like approval may increase the 



WOODROW WILSON 643 

number of members of the league to be selected by the 
assembly for representation on the council. 

The council shall meet from time to time as occasion 
may require and at least once a year, at the seat of the 
league, or at such other place as may be decided upon. 

The council may deal at its meetings with any matter 
within the sphere of action of the league or affecting t la- 
peace of the world. 

Any member of the league not represented on the 
council shall be invited to send a representative to sit as 
a member at any meeting of the council during the con- 
sideration of matters specially affecting the interests of 
that member of the league. 

At meetings of the council each member of the league 
represented on the council shall have one vote, and may 
not have more than one representative. 

[This embodies that part of the original Article TTT, 
designating the original members of the council. The 
paragraph providing for increase in the membership of 
the council is new.] 

Article V 

Except where otherwise expressly provided in this 
covenant, decisions at any meeting of the assembly or of 
the council shall require the agreement of all the member- 
of the league represented at the meeting. 

All matters of procedure at meetings of the assembly 
or of the council, the appointment of committees to inves- 
tigate particular matters, shall be regulated by the as- 
sembly or by the council, and may be decided by amajoril y 
of the members of the league represented at the meeting. 

The first meeting of the assembly and the first meel 
ing of the council shall be summoned by the president of 
the United States of America. 

[The first paragraph requiring unanimous agi 
ment in both assembly and council except where otherw ise 



644 WOODROW WILSON 

provided is new. The other two paragraphs originally 
were included in Article IV.] 

Article VI 

The permanent secretariat shall be established at the 
seat of the league. The secretariat shall comprise a sec- 
retariat general and such secretaries and staff as may 
be required. 

The first secretary general shall be the person named 
in the annex ; thereafter the secretary general shall be 
appointed by the council, with the approval of the majority 
of the assembly. 

The secretaries and the staff of the secretariat shall 
be appointed by the secretary general, with the approval 
of the council. 

The secretary general shall act in that capacity at all 
meetings of the assembly and of the council. 

The expenses of the secretariat shall be borne by the 
members of the league, in accordance with the apportion- 
ment of the expenses of the international bureau of the 
Universal Postal Union. 

[This replaces the original Article V. In the original 
the appointment of the first secretary general was left 
to the council and approval of the majority of the as- 
sembly was not required for subsequent appointments.] 

Article VII 

The seat of the league is established at Geneva. 

The council may at any time decide that the seat of 
the league shall be established elsewhere. 

All positions under or in connection with the league, 
including the secretariat, shall be open equally to men 
and women. 

Eepresentatives of the members of the league and 
officials of the league, when engaged on the business of the 
league, shall enjoy diplomatic privileges and immunities. 



WOODROW WILSON 645 

The buildings and other property occupied by the 
league or its officials, or by representatives attending its 
meetings, shall be inviolable. 

[Embodying parts of the old Articles V and VI, this 
article names Geneva instead of leaving the seat of the 
league to be chosen later, and adds the provision for 
changing the seat in the future. The paragraph opening 
positions to women equally with men is new.] 

Article VIII 

The members of the league recognize that the main- 
tenance of a peace requires the reduction of national 
armaments to the lowest point consistent with national 
safety and the enforcement by common action of inter- 
national obligations. 

The council, taking account of the geographical sit- 
uation and circumstances of each estate, shall formulate 
plans for such reduction for the consideration and action 
of the several governments. 

Such plans shall be subject to reconsideration and 
revision at least every ten years. 

After these plans shall have been adopted by the sev- 
eral governments limits of armaments therein fixed shall 
not be exceeded without the concurrence of the council. 

The members of the league agree that the manufac- 
ture by private enterprise of munitions and implements 
of war is open to grave objections. The council shall 
advise how the evil effects attendant upon such manufac- 
ture can be prevented, due regard being had to the neces- 
sities of those members of the league which are not able 
to manufacture the munitions and implements of war 
necessary for their safety. 

The members of the league undertake to interchange 
full and frank information as to the scale of their anna 
ments, their military and naval programs, and the condi- 
tion of such of their industries as are adaptable to warlike 
purposes. 



646 WOODROW WILSON 

[This covers the ground of the original Article VIII, 
but is rewritten to make it clearer that armament reduc- 
tion plans must be adopted by nations affected before 
becoming effective.] 

Aeticle IX 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to 
advise the council on the execution of the provisions of 
Article I and on military and naval questions generally. 

[Unchanged except for the insertion of the word 
1 * article. ' ' 

Aeticle X 

The members of the league undertake to respect and 
preserve, as against external aggression, the territorial 
integrity and existing political independence of all mem- 
bers of the league. In case of any such aggression or in 
case of any threat or danger of such aggression, the coun- 
cil shall advise upon the means by which this obligation 
shall be fulfilled. 

Article XI 

Any war or threat of war, whether immediately 
affecting any of the members of the league or not, is 
hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole league, 
and the league shall take any action that may be deemed 
wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations. In 
case any such emergency should arise, the secretary gen- 
eral shall, on the request of any member of the league, 
forthwith summon a meeting of the council. 

It is also declared to be the fundamental right of 
each member of the league to bring to the attention of the 
assembly or of the council any circumstance whatever 
affecting international relations which threatens to dis- 
turb either the peace or the good understanding between 
nations upon which peace depends. 

[In the original it was provided that the "high con- 
tracting parties reserve the right to take any action," etc., 



WOODROW WILSON 647 

where the revised draft reads, "the league shall take 
any action," etc.] 

Article XII 

The members of the league agree that if there should 
arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture, 
they will submit the matter either to arbitration or to 
inquiry by the council, and they agree in no case to resort 
to war until three months after the award by the arbi- 
trators or the report by the council. 

In any case under this article, the award of the arbi- 
trators shall be made within a reasonable time, and the 
report of the council shall be made within six months after 
the submission of the dispute. 

[Unchanged except that some provisions of the origi- 
nal are eliminated for inclusion in other articles.] 

Article XIII 

The members of the league agree that, whenever any 
dispute shall arise between them which they recognize 
to be suitable for submission to arbitration and which 
cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy, they will 
submit the whole subject matter to arbitration. Disputes 
as to the interpretation of a treaty, as to any question of 
international law, as to the existence of any fact which, 
if established, would constitute a breach of any interna- 
tional obligation, or as to the extent and nature of the 
reparation to be made for any such breach, are declared 
to be among those which are generally suitable for sub 
mission to arbitration. For the consideration of any 
such dispute the court of arbitration to which the case La 
referred shall be the court agreed on by the parties to the 
dispute or stipulated in any convention existing between 

them. 

The members of the league agree that they will carry 
out in full good faith any award that may be rendered, 
and that they will not resort to war against a member 



648 WOODROW WILSON 

of the league which complies therewith. In the event of 
any failure to carry out such an award the council shall 
propose what steps should be taken to give effect thereto. 
[Only minor changes in language.] 

Article XIV 

The council shall formulate and submit to the mem- 
bers of the league for adoption plans for the establish- 
ment of a permanent court of international justice. The 
court shall be competent to hear and determine any dis- 
pute of an international character which the parties 
thereto submit to it. The court may also give an advisory 
opinion upon any dispute or question referred to it by the 
council or by the assembly. 

[Unchanged except for the addition of the last 
sentence.] 

Article XV 

If there should arise between members of the league 
any dispute likely to lead to a rupture which is not sub- 
mitted to arbitration as above, the members of the league 
agree that they will submit the matter to the council. 

Any party to the dispute may effect such submission 
by giving notice of the existence of the dispute to the sec- 
retary general, who will make all necessary arrangements 
for a full investigation and consideration thereof. For 
this purpose the parties to the dispute will communicate 
to the secretary general, as promptly as possible, state- 
ments of their case, all the relevant facts and papers; 
the council may forthwith direct the publication thereof. 

The council shall endeavor to effect a settlement of 
any dispute, and if such efforts are successful a statement 
shall be made public giving such facts and explanations 
regarding the dispute, terms of settlement thereof, as the 
council may deem appropriate. 

If the dispute is not thus settled, the council, either 
unanimously or by a majority vote, shall make and pub- 



WOODROW WILSON 649 

lish a report containing a statement of the facts of the 
dispute and the recommendations which are deemed just 
and proper in regard thereto. 

Any member of the league represented on the council 
may make public a statement of the facts of the dispute 
and of its conclusions regarding the same. 

If a report by the council is unanimously agreed to 
by the members thereof other than the representatives 
of one or more of the parties to the dispute, the members 
of the league agree that they will not go to war with any 
party to the dispute which complies with recommenda- 
tions of the report. 

If the council fails to reach a report which is unani- 
mously agreed to by the members thereof, other than the 
representatives of one or more of the parties to the dis- 
pute, the members of the league reserve to themselves 
the right to take such action as they shall consider neces- 
sary for the maintenance of right and justice. 

If the dispute between the parties is claimed by one 
of them, and is found by the council, to arise out of a mat- 
ter which by international law is solely within the don 
tic jurisdiction of that party, the council shall so report, 
and shall make no recommendation as to its settlement. 
The council may in any case under this article refer 
the dispute to the assembly. The dispute shall be so 
referred at the request of either party to the dispute, pro 
vided that such request be made within fourteen days 
after the submission of the dispute to the council. 

In any case referred to the assembly all the provi 
sions of this article and of Article XII, relating to the 
action and powers of the council, shall apply to the action 
and powers of the assembly, provided that a reporl made 
by the assembly, if concurred in by the representatives of 
those members of the league represented on the council 
and of a majority of the other members of tin- league, 
exclusive in each case of the representatives of the pa rties 
to the dispute, shall have the same force as a reporl by the 



650 WOODROW WILSON 

council concurred in by all the members thereof other 
than the representatives of one or more of the parties to 
the dispute. 

[The paragraph specifically excluding matters of 
" domestic jurisdiction" from action by the council is new. 
In the last sentence the words "if concurred in by the 
representatives of those members of the league repre- 
sented to the council," etc., are added.] 

Article XVI 

Should any member of the league resort to war in 
disregard of its covenants under Articles XII, XIII, or 
XV, it shall, ipso facto, be deemed to have committed an 
act of war against all other members of the league, which 
hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the sever- 
ance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of 
all intercourse between their nations and the nations of 
the covenant breaking state and the prevention of all 
financial, commercial, or personal intercourse between the 
nationals of the covenant breaking state and the nationals 
of any other state, whether a member of the league or not. 

It shall be the duty of the council in such case to rec- 
ommend to the several governments concerned what effec- 
tive military or naval forces the members of the league 
shall severally contribute to the armaments of forces to 
be used to protect the covenants of the league. 

The members of the league agree, further, that they 
will mutually support one another in the financial and 
economic measures which are taken under this article, in 
order to minimize the loss and inconvenience resulting 
from the above measures, and that they will mutually 
support one another in resisting any special measures 
aimed at one of their number by the covenant breaking 
state, and that they will take the necessary steps to afford 
passage through their territory to the forces of any of the 
members of the league which are cooperating to protect 
the covenants of the league. 



WOODROW WILSON 

Any member of the league which has violated any 
covenant of the league may be declared to be no longer a 
member of the league by a vote of the council concurred 
in by the representatives of all the other members of the 
league represented thereon. 
[Addition of the last sentence.] 

Article XYTI 

In the event of a dispute between a member of the 
league and a state which is not a member of the league, or 
between states not members of the league, the state or 
states not members of the league shall be invited to accept 
the obligations of membership in the league for the pur- 
poses of such dispute, upon such conditions as the council 
may deem just. If such invitation is accepted, the provi- 
sions of Articles XII to XVI inclusive shall be applied 
with such modifications as may be deemed necessary by 
the council. 

Upon such invitation being given, the council shall 
immediately institute an inquiry into the circumstances 
of the dispute and recommend such action as may seem 
best and most effectual in the circumstances. 

If a state so invited shall refuse to accept the obliga- 
tions of membership in the league for the purposes of 
such dispute, and shall resort to war against a member 
of the league, the provisions of Article XVI shall be ap- 
plicable as against the state taking such action. 

If both parties to the dispute, when so invited, refuse 
to accept the obligations of membership in the league for 
the purposes of such dispute, the council may take such 
measures and make such recommendations as will prevent 
hostilities and will result in the settlement of the dispute. 
[Virtually unchanged.] 

Article XVIII 
Every convention or international engagement en- 
tered into henceforward by any member of the league, 



652 WOODROW WILSON 

shall be forthwith registered with the secretariat and 
shall, as soon as possible, be published by it. No such 
treaty or international engagement shall be binding until 
so registered. 

[Same as original Article XXIII.] 

Akticle XIX 

The assembly may from time to time advise the recon- 
sideration by members of the league of treaties which 
have become inapplicable, and the consideration of inter- 
national conditions whose continuance might endanger 
the peace of the world. 

[Virtually same as old Article XXIV.] 

Akticle XX 

The members of the league severally agree that this 
covenant is accepted as abrogating all obligations or un- 
derstanding inter se which are inconsistent with the terms 
thereof, and solemnly undertake that they will not here- 
after enter into any engagements inconsistent with the 
terms thereof. 

In case members of the league shall, before becoming 
a member of the league, have undertaken any obligations 
inconsistent with the terms of this covenant, it shall be 
the duty of such member to take immediate steps to pro- 
cure its release from such obligations. 

[Virtually the same as original Article XXV.] 

Akticle XXI 

Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to affect the 
validity of international engagements, such as treaties of 
arbitration or regional understandings like the Monroe 
Doctrine for securing the maintenance of peace. 

[Entirely new.] 

Article XXII 

To those colonies and territories which, as a conse- 
quence of the late war, have ceased to be under the sov- 



WOODROW WILSON 653 

ereignty of the states which formerly governed them and 
which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by 
themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern 
world, there should be applied the principle that the well 
being and development of such peoples form a sacred 
trust of civilization and that securities for the perform 
ance of this trust should be embodied in this covenant. 
The best method of giving practicable effect to this 
principle is that the tutelage of such peoples be intrusted 
to advanced nations who, by reason of their resources, 
their experience or their geographical position, can best 
undertake this responsibility and who are willing to ac- 
cept it, and that this tutelage should be exercised by them 
as mandatories on behalf of the league. 

The character of the mandate must differ according 
to the stage of the development of the people, the geo- 
graphical situation of the territory, its economic condi- 
tion, and other similar circumstances. 

Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish 
empire have reached a stage of development where their 
existence, as independent nations, can be provisionally 
recognized subject to the rendering of administrative 
advice and assistance by a mandatory until such time as 
they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these com- 
munities must be a principal consideration in the selection 
of the mandatory peoples, especially those of central 
Africa, who are at such a stage that the mandatory must 
be responsible for the administration of the territory 
under conditions which will guarantee freedom of con- 
science or religion subject only to the maintenance of 
public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses, such as 
the slave trade, the arms traffic, and the liquor traffic and 
the prevention of the establishment of fortifications or 
military and naval bases and of military training of the 
nations for other than police purposes and the defense 
of territory, and will also secure equal opportunities for 
the trade and commerce of other members of the Lea 



654 WOODROW WILSON 

There are territories such as Southwest Africa and 
certain of the South Pacific islands, which, owing to the 
sparseness of their population or their small size or their 
remoteness from the centers of civilization or their geo- 
graphical contiguity to the territory of the mandatory 
and other circumstances can be best administered under 
the laws of the mandatory as integral portions of its 
territory subject to the safeguards above mentioned in the 
interests of the indigenous population. In every case of 
mandate, the mandatory shall render to the council an 
annual report in reference to the territory committed to 
its charge. 

The degree of authority, control, or administration 
to be exercised by the mandatory shall, if not previously 
agreed upon by the members of the league, be explicitly 
defined in each case by the council. 

A permanent commission shall be constituted to re- 
ceive and examine the annual reports of the mandatories 
and to advise the council on all matters relating to observ- 
ance of the mandates. 

[This is the original Article XIX, virtually except 
for the insertion of the words "and who are willing to 
accept," in describing nations to be given mandatories.] 

Aeticle XXIII 

Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of 
international conventions existing or hereafter to be 
agreed upon, members of the league (a) will endeavor to 
secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labor 
for men, women, and children, both in their own countries 
and in all countries to which their commercial and indus- 
trial relations extend, and for that purpose will establish 
and maintain the necessary international organizations. 

(b) Undertake to secure just treatment of the native 
inhabitants of territories under their control. 

(c) Will intrust the league with the general super- 
vision over the execution of agreements with regard to 



WOODROW WILSON 655 

the traffic in women and children and the traffic in opium 
and other dangerous drugs. 

_ (d) Will intrust the league with the genera] roper- 
vision of the trade in arms and ammunition with the 
countries in which the control of this traffic is necessary 
in the common interest. 

(e) Will make provision to secure and maintain free- 
dom of communication and of transit and equitaUe treat- 
ment for the commerce of all members of the league. In 
this connection the special necessities of the regions dev- 
astated during the war of 1914-1918 shall be in mind. 

_ (f) Will endeavor to take steps in matters of inter- 
national concern for the prevention and control of disease. 

[This replaces the original article XX, and embodies 
parts of the original articles XVIII and XXI. It elim- 
inates a specific provision formerly made for a bureau of 
labor and adds the clauses (b) and (c).] 

Article XXIV 

There shall be placed under the direction of the league 
all international bureaus already established by general 
treaties if the jDarties to such treaties consent. All such 
international bureaus and all commissions for the regula- 
tion of matters of international interest hereafter const i- 
tuted shall be placed under the direction of the league. 

In all matters of international interest which are 
regulated by general conventions, but which are not 
placed under the control of international bureaus or com- 
missions, the secretariat of the league shall, subject t<> 
the consent of the council, and if desired by the parties, 
collect and distribute all relevant information and shall 
render any other assistance which may be necessary or 
desirable. 

The council may include as part of the expenses of 
the secretariat the expenses of any bureau or commission 
which is placed under the direction of the league. 



656 WOODROW WILSON 

[Same as Article XXII, in the original, with the mat- 
ter after the first two sentences added.] 

Article XXV 

The members of the league agree to encourage and 
promote the establishment and cooperation of duly au- 
thorized voluntary national Red Cross organizations hav- 
ing as purposes improvement of health, the prevention of 
disease, and mitigation of suffering throughout the world. 
[Entirely new.] 

Article XXVI 

Amendments to this covenant will take effect when 
ratified by the members of the league whose representa- 
tives compose the council and by a majority of the mem- 
bers of the league whose representatives compose the 
assembly. 

No such amendment shall bind any member of the 
league which signifies its dissent therefrom, but in that 
case it shall cease to be a member of the league. 

[Same as orginal, except majority of league, instead 
of three-fourths, is required for ratification of amend- 
ments, with last sentence added.] 

As constituted the league contained forty-five nations 
or dominions. In the first category were the following 
named thirty-two states which either waged war on Ger- 
many or broke relations with her : 

Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British empire, 
Canada, China, Cuba, Czecho-Slovakia, Ecuador, France, 
Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Honduras, India, Italy, 
Japan, Libera, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, 
Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Serbia, Siam, South Africa, 
United States, Uruguay. 

The following thirteen neutral states were invited to 
become original members of the league : 

Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Netherlands, 



WOODROW WILSON 657 

Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, 
Switzerland, Venezuela. 

Countries not mentioned, but which were placed upon 
probation subject to admission to the league by a two- 
thirds vote of its members, were : 

Austra, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Germany, Hungary, 
Mexico, Russia, Santo Domingo. 

The exclusion of Mexico from the list of charter mem- 
bers was significant. Although President Wilson recog- 
nized the Carranza government, the example was not 
generally followed in Europe, except by the Teutonic 
allies. The entente governments were of the opinion 
that Mexico must mend its ways before being entitled to 
membership in the society of nations. 

Costa Rica was excluded at the instance of President 
Wilson, who refused recognition of the existing govern- 
ment on the ground that President Tinoco won his office 
by a coup d'etat. 

One of the most important questions raised in the 
conference was that of union labor. While the peace dele- 
gates were debating the terms to be presented to the Ger- 
man emissaries, Samuel Gompers, president of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor and chairman of the peace con- 
ference commission on international labor, completed his 
report to the conference. 

The commission drew up its conclusions in two parts, 
the first part being a draft convention providing for the 
establishment of a permanent world labor conference to 
be linked with the league of nations. 

The second part was in the form of clauses containing 
declarations of principle regarding the rights of workers 
the world over, which, it was suggested, should be in- 
cluded in the treaty of peace. 

The commission agreed to ask the United States to 
call the first meeting of the labor conference, which was 
to be held annually. 

The matters scheduled to be taken up were : 



658 WOODROW WILSON 

1 — Application of the principle of an eight-hour day 
for a forty-eight hour week. 

2 — Question of preventing or providing against un- 
employment. 

3 — "Women's employment — [a] before and after 
childbirth, including the question of maternity benefit; 
[b] during the night ; [c] in unhealthy processes. 

4 — Employment of children — [a] minimum age of 
employment; [b] during the night [c] in unhealthy 
processes. 

5 — Extension and application of the international 
conventions accepted at Berne in 1906 on the prohibition 
of night work for women employed in industry and the 
prohibition of the use of white phosphorus in the manu- 
facture of matches. 

The international organzing committee for the con- 
vention consisted of seven members, appointed by the 
United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Bel- 
gium and Switzerland. The committee might, if it 
thought necessary, invite other states to appoint repre- 
sentatives. Any of the high contracting parties had a 
right to file a complaint with the international labor office 
if it was not satisfied that any other of the high contracting 
parties was obtaining the effective observance of any con- 
vention which both ratified in accordance with the articles 
of the convention. 

Amendments might be adopted by a majority of two- 
thirds of the votes cast by the delegates present and took 
effect when ratified by the states whose representatives 
composed the executive council of the league of nations 
and by three-fourths of the states whose representatives 
composed the body of delegates of the league. 

Among these clauses proposed for insertion in the 
peace treaty were the following : 

"The labor of a human being should not be treated as 
merchandise or as an article of commerce ; no child should 
be permitted to be employed in industry before the age of 



WOODROW TVILSON 659 

14; between the ages of 14 and 18 young persons may be 
employed on work which is not harmful to their physical 
development; employers and workers should be allowed 
the right of association for all lawful purposes; equal 
pay to women and men for work of equal value in quan- 
tity and quality; every worker has a right to a wage ade- 
quate to maintain a reasonable standard of life, having 
regard to the civilization of his time and country; limita- 
tion of the hours of work in industry on the basis of eighl 
hours a day or forty-eight hours a week, subject to an 
exception for countries in which climatic conditions, the 
imperfect development of industrial organization, or 
other special circumstances render the industrial effi- 
ciency of the workers substantially different. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
PKESIDENT WILSON SPEAKS. 

On April 28th, 1919, President Wilson addressed the 
assembled conference on the revised covenant. He said : 

' ' Mr. President : When the text of the covenant of 
the league of nations was last laid before you I had the 
honor of reading the covenant in extenso. I will not de- 
tain you today to read the covenant as it has now been 
altered, but will merely take the liberty of explaining to 
you some of the alterations that have been made. 

"The report of the commission has been circulated. 
You yourself have in hand the text of the covenant, and 
will no doubt have noticed that most of the changes that 
have been made are mere changes of phraseology, not 
changes of substance, and besides that most of the changes 
are intended to clarify the document, or rather, to make 
explicit what we all have assumed was implicit in the docu- 
ment as it was originally presented to you. 

"But I shall take the liberty of calling your attention 
to the new features, such as they are. Some of them are 
considerable, the rest trivial. 

' ' The first paragraph of Article I is new. In view of 
the insertion of the covenant in the peace treaty, specific 
provision as to the signatories of the treaty who would 
become members of the league and also as to neutral 
states to be invited to accede to the covenant, were ob- 
viously necessary. The paragraph also provides for the 
method by which a neutral state may accede to the 
covenant. 

1 ' The third paragraph of Article I is new, providing 
for the withdrawal of any member of the league on a 
notice given of two years. 

660 



WOODROW WILSON 661 

"The second paragraph of Article IV is new, provid- 
ing for a possible increase in the council, should other 
powers be added to the league of nations whose present 
accession is not anticipated. 

' ' The last two paragraphs of Article IV are new, pro- 
viding specifically for one vote for each member of the 
league in the council, which was understood before, and 
providing also for one representative of each member 
of the league. 

"The first paragraph of Article V is new, expressly 
incorporating the provision as to the unanimity of voting, 
which was at first taken for granted. 

"The second paragraph of Article VI has had added 
to it that a majority of the assembly must approve the 
appointment of the secretary general. 

"The first paragraph of Article VII names Geneva 
as the seat of the league, and is followed by a second para- 
graph which gives the council power to establish the seat 
of the league elsewhere, should it subsequently deem it 
necessary. 

"The third paragraph of Article VII is new, estab- 
lishing equality of employment of men and women, thai 
is to say, by the league. 

"The second paragraph of Article XIII is new, inas- 
much as it undertakes to give instances of disputes which 
are generally suitable for submission to arbitration, in- 
stances of what have latterly been called ' justiciable ' ques- 
tions. 

"The eighth paragraph of Article XV is new. This 
is the amendment regarding domestic jurisdiction, thai 
where the council finds a question arising out of an inter- 
national dispute affects matters which are dearly ander 
the domestic jurisdiction of one or other of the parties, it 
is to report to that effect and make no recommendation. 

"The last paragraph of Article XVI is new, provid 
ing for an expulsion from the league in certain extraor 
dinary circumstances. 



662 WOODROW WILSON 

' 'Article XXI is new. 

' ' The second paragraph of Article XXII inserts the 
words, with regard to mandatories, 'and who are willing 
to accept it, ' thus explicitly introducing the principle that 
a mandate can not be forced upon a nation unwilling to 
accept it. 

"Article XXIII is a combination of several former 
articles, and also contains the following : A clause provid- 
ing for the just treatment of aborigines ; a clause looking 
toward a prevention of the white slave traffic and the traf- 
fic in opium, and a clause looking toward progress in inter- 
national prevention and control of disease. 

"Article XXV specifically mentions the Red Cross 
as one of the international organizations which are to 
connect their work with the work of the league. 

"Article XXVI permits the amendment of the 
covenant by a majority of the states composing the as- 
sembly, instead of three-fourths of the states, though it 
does not change the requirements in that matter with 
regard to the vote in the council. 

' ' The second paragraph of Article XXVI is also new 
and was added at the request of the Brazilian delegation, 
in order to avoid certain constitutional difficulties. It per- 
mits any member of the league to dissent from an amend- 
ment, the effect of such dissent being withdrawal from 
the league. 

"And the annex is added, giving the names of the 
signatories of the treaty, who become members, and the 
names of the states invited to accede to the covenant. 
These are all the changes, I believe, which are of moment. 

' ' Mr. President : I take the opportunity to move the 
following resolutions in order to carry out the provisions 
of the covenant. You will notice that the covenant pro- 
vides that the first secretary general shall be chosen by 
this conference. It also provides that the first choice of 
the four member states who are to be added to the five 
great powers on the council is left to this conference. 



WOODROW WILSON 663 

1 'I move, therefore, that the first secretary general of 
the council shall be the Hon. Sir James Eric Drummond, 
and, second, that until such time as the assembly shall 
have selected the first four members of the league to be 
represented on the council in accordance with Article IV 
of the covenant, representatives of Belgium, Brazil, 
Greece and Spain shall be members; and, third, that the 
powers to be represented on the council of the league of 
nations are requested to name representatives who shall 
form a committee of nine to prepare plans for the or- 
ganization of the league and for the establishment of the 
seat of the league and to make arrangements and to pre- 
pare the agenda for the first meeting of the assembly, this 
committee to report both to the council and to the as- 
sembly of the league. 

"I think it not necessary to call your attention to 
other matters we have previously discussed — the capital 
significance of this covenant; the hopes which are enter- 
tained as to the effect it will have upon steadying the 
affairs of the world and the obvious necessity that there 
should be a concert of the free nations of the world to 
maintain justice in international relations, the relations 
between people and between the nations of the world . 

"If Baron Makino will pardon me for introducing a 
matter which I absemmindedly overlooked, it is necessary 
for me to propose the alteration of several words in the 
first line of Article V. Let me say that in several parts 
of the treaty, of which this covenant will form a part, cer- 
tain duties are assigned to the council of the league of 
nations. 

"In some instances it is provided that the action they 
shall take shall be by a majority vote. It is therefore 
necessary to make the covenant conform with the other 
portions of the treaty by adding these words. 1 will read 
the first line and add the words : 

" 'Except where otherwise expressly provided in tins 
covenant, or by the terms of this treaty, decisions at any 



664 WOODROW WILSON 

meeting of the assembly or of the council shall require the 
agreement of all the members of the league represented 
at the meeting. 

" 'Except where otherwise expressly provided in this 
covenant,' is the present reading, and I move the addition 
'or by the terms of this treaty.' With that addition I 
move the adoption of the covenant." 

The covenant of the league of nations in revised form, 
moved by President Wilson, was adopted by the peace 
conference in plenary session without a dissenting vote. 
The President's motion naming Sir James Eric Drum- 
mond as secretary general of the league also was adopted. 

Thus one of the notable works of the conference 
passes its final stage and was incorporated in the peace 
treaty. 

The French and Japanese amendments, after a brief 
discussion, were not pressed, and the way was cleared for 
unanimous acceptance of the league. 

Italy was not represented at the session, but the name 
of Italy appeared as one of the members of the league in 
the covenant finally adopted. Nine labor principles, in- 
cluding an eight-hour day, were adopted for insertion in 
the treaty. 

The session adjourned without considering the report 
on war responsibilities, providing for the trial of the for- 
mer German emperor by five judges from the great pow- 
ers. This report was handed in by the committee of the 
big four and embodied in the peace treaty a provision for 
the former emperor's prosecution. 

President Wilson was looked to at the outset for a 
detailed explanation of the new covenant of the league. 
His speech was without oratorical effect and confirmed 
the explanation of the textual changes, most of which have 
already been noted, and named Belgium, Brazil, Greece 
and Spain on the league council and also on the commit- 
tee to prepare plans for the first meeting of the league. 

Baron Makino, head of the Japanese delegation, in a 





The ex-Kaiser William TT in exile in 



WOODROW WILSON 

brief speech called renewed attention to the Japan 
amendment on racial equality. He said that the raceq i 
tion was a standing grievance, which might become a 
dangerous issue at any time. The Japanese government 
and people, Baron Makino declared, felt poignan 
that the amendment had not been incorporated in the 
covenant, and announced that an effort would 1>.- made 
to have the principle of racial equality adopted aa part of 
the document. 

Paul Hymans, representing Belgium, expressed the 
regret of the Belgian people at the selection of (i< neva aa 
the seat of the league of nations, while approving the high 
aims of the league. 

The Uruguayan delegate announced the adhesion of 
his country to the league. 

Leon Bourgeois, for France, renewed two amend 
ments tending to give France additional security. One 
provided for the creation of a committee to ascertain and 
exchange military and naval programs, information re- 
garding armaments, and similar matters. The other pro 
vided for "a permanent organization for the purpose of 
considering and providing for naval and military n 
ures to enforce obligations arising for the high contract- 
ing parties under the covenant making it immediately 
operative in all cases of emergency. ' ' 

M. Burgeois argued that such securih w&B essential 
to France because of the extended frontiers of thai conn- 
try, which, as President Wilson had declared in tin- 
French senate, were the frontiers of the world'.- liberties. 

The amendments of M. Bourgeois were no! pa€ 
Premier Clemenceau then put the question of the adopt ion 
of President Wilson's motion, which prevailed without a 
formal vote. 

Although the peace conference in plenary session 
failed to take up the question of responsibility for the 
war, officials in Washington were unanimoua in then 
belief that the peace treaty, as delivered to the German 



670 WOODKOW WILSON 

plenipotentiaries, should call for the trial of William 
Hohenzollern, former emperor of Germany, before a court 
of the associated powers. 

Trial of the former emperor for ' ' a supreme offense 
against international morality and the sanctity of 
treaties," the State Department announced, was included 
in the recommendations of the peace conference commis- 
sion on responsibility. These recommendations were em- 
bodied in four articles, which were made public by the 
State Department without comment and which the com- 
mission proposed to insert in the final treaty. 

The articles specified that the former emperor was 
not to be tried ' ' for an offense against criminal law, ' ' and 
that the international court should be composed of five 
judges, one to be appointed by each of the five great pow- 
ers — Great Britain, United States, Japan, Italy and 
France. It was further provided that the associated gov- 
ernments should request Holland to deliver up the former 
emperor. 

The commission's recommendations provided that all 
persons accused of acts in violation of the international 
rules of warfare should be brought before international 
tribunals, and if found guilty should be given the penal- 
ties of international law. 

# 

Some officials said this provision would include such 
leaders of extreme German militarism and cruelty as Ad- 
miral von Tirpitz, who conceived and advocated the sub- 
marine campaign. 

The amendment issued by the State Department fol- 
lows: 

"Following are the proposed articles regarding pen- 
alties for insertion in treaty of peace to be considered at 
a plenary session of conference today : 

" ' Article I — The Allies and associated powers pub- 
licly arraign William II of Hohenzollern, formerly Ger- 
man emperor, not for an offense against criminal law, but 



WOODROW WILSON 

for a supreme offense against international morality and 
the sanctity of treaties. 

'"A special tribunal will be constituted to try the 
accused, thereby assuring him the guarantees es sntial to 
the right of defense. It will be cornp.. five jud 

one appointed by each of the following live powers— na 
ly: the United States of America, Great Britain, Franc.', 
Italy and Japan. 

" 'In its decision the tribunal will be guided by the 
highest motives of international policy, with a view to 
vindicating the solemn obligations of international under- 
takings and the validity of international morality. It will 
be its duty to fix the punishment which it considers Bhould 
be imposed. 

'''The allied and associated powers will addreE 
request to the government of The Netherlands for the sur- 
render to them of the ex-emperor in order that he may In- 
put on trial. 

" 'Article II — The German government not having 
insured the punishment of the persons accused of having 
exercised acts in violation of the laws and customs of war, 
such persons will be brought before military tribunal- by 
the allied and associated powers, and if found guilty, sen- 
tenced to the punishments laid down by military lav, . 

" 'The German government shall hand ever to the 
allied and associated powers, or to such of them as shall 
so request, all persons accused of having commit ted an act 
in violation of the laws and customs of war who are speci- 
fied either by name or by the rank, office, or employment 
which they held under the German authorities. 

"'Article III — Persons guilty of criminal 
against the nationals of one of the allied and associated 
powers will be brought before the military tribunal of 
that power. 

"'Persons guilty of criminal acts against the na- 
tionals of more than one of the allied and associated pow- 
ers will be brought before military tribunals composed of 



672 WOODROW WILSON 

members of the military tribunals of the powers con- 
cerned. 

" 'In every case the accused will be entitled to name 
his own counsel. 

" 'Article IV — The German government undertakes to 
furnish all documents and information of every kind, the 
production of which may be considered necessary to in- 
sure the full knowledge of the incriminating acts, the dis- 
covery of the offenders, the just appreciation of the re- 
sponsibility. ' " 

Specific provision for punishment of individual 
enemy officers and officials who order or permit violations 
of the established rules of war was found in ' ' rules of land 
warfare, ' ' the official handbook of the United States gov- 
ernment on this subject. Under the head of "Punish- 
ment of Individuals.' ' the following passage occurred : 

"Commanders ordering commission of such acts or 
under whose authority they are committed may be pun- 
ished by the belligerent into whose hands they fall." 

Offenses listed against the military forces of the cen- 
tral powers included the employing of "projectiles which 
have for their object the diffusion of asphyxiating or 
deleterious gases," mushroom bullets, destruction of Red 
Cross and hospital personnel and material, pollution of 
water supply sources, and misuse of flags of truce. 

Republican senators began to gather in Washington 
for a series of conferences to formulate their position and 
outline a program of action with regard to the revised 
league of nations. 

Those who reached the capital discussed the new 
league covenant. They denounced "propaganda," as 
they stamped it, representing them as weakening in their 
opinions on the league. Even as revised, they declared it 
unacceptable and there was a unanimity of belief that the 
covenant would have to be radically revised before it 
could be ratified by the Senate. 

The attitude of returned senators was summed up by 



WOODROW WILSON 673 

Senator Sherman of Illinois, who had been absent on BO 
extended visit among his constituents. He said : 

"The league has been improved Bomewhat, but not 
nearly sufficiently to justify my voting for it. ' ' 

Senator Sherman added that he was convinced the 
majority of the people of Illinois supported his position. 

"Round robin" signers expressed themselves 
pleased with the reception they had been gives by their 
constituents. Almost without exception they regarded 
the amendments written into the league covenant as 
wholly inadequate. 

West coast senators, where the Japanese immigra- 
tion question was a vital issue, were displeased with the 
failure of the revised covenant to specifically reserve the 
sovereignty of the United States over immigration. Ajb 
they interpreted the amended covenant, the power to de- 
cide whether an issue w T as of a domestic nature was taken 
away from nations and placed in the hands of the league 
council. 

Advocates of the revised covenant predicted that not 
more than fifteen votes will be cast against it. With all 
senators present and voting this would mean eighty 
votes in favor of the league plan, or seventeen votes more 
than two-thirds of the membership. 

Opponents of the covenant made no predictions, but 
centered their fire upon four parts of the revised draft 
which they would seek to remove by amendments or sepa- 
rate resolutions qualifying American adhesion to the 
treaty. These objections were : 

1. That Article XXI, recognizing the Monroe 
Doctrine, w r as inadequate. 

2. That domestic questions, such as exclusion of im- 
migrants on racial grounds, were not wholly exempted 
from the jurisdiction of the league. 

3. That Article X, guaranteeing the territorial in 
tegrity of members of the league from external aggi 
sion, would put the world in a strait-jacket 



674 WOODROW WILSON 

4. That Article XI conferred on the league a 
dangerous power to deal with any ' ' threat of war, whether 
immediately affecting any of the members of the league or 
not." 

Inasmuch as only a majority was necessary to adopt 
an amendment or qualifying resolution, opponents of the 
revised league plan were confident that some, if not all, 
of these changes could be effected. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
THE GERMAN EMISSARIES. 

Count von Brockclorff-Kantzau, German foreign min- 
ister; Herr Landsberg, secretary for publicity, art and 
literature; Dr. Theodor Melchoir, general manager of the 
Warburg bank; Herr Leinert, president of the Prussian 
assembly; Herr Giesberts, minister of posts and tele- 
graphs, and Herr Scliuecking, Germany's plenipoten- 
tiaries to the peace congress, reached the little station a1 
Vaucresson, five miles from Versailles, on April 29, 1919. 
They were lodged in a Versailles hotel. 

The German delegates, accompanied by sixty ezperi 8, 
assistants and journalists, traveled in two special trains 
from Germany. 

Several windows of the second train, which brought 
journalists and other attaches, were broken as a result 
of a minor demonstration during the trip. 

Uplifted in spirit by prospects of peace and news- 
paper reports that the German peace delegates had passe* 1 
Cologne en route to Versailles, five Coblenz civilians 
hoisted German flags. The colors fluttered from their 
staffs only a short time, all being lowered by the military 
police almost as soon as they appeared. 

A crowd of two hundred American soldiers on leave 
assembled in the street near a downtown building where a 
large German flag was flying, but a military policeman 
relieved the situation by hauling down the flag himself. 

Army regulations prohibited the flying <>t' German 
colors except by special permission, which was granted 
upon only one occasion after the Americans came. 
That was in January, when the burgomaster of Coblenz 
died. 

675 



676 WOODROW WILSON 

In the neutral zone opposite Coblenz there were Ger- 
man flags flying over most houses and the enemy colors 
were displayed in all villages as far as the outposts could 
see with glasses. It indicated that the Germans believed 
peace soon would be signed and the suspense which pre- 
vailed since the armistice would be broken. 

On April 29th, the Italian chamber of deputies passed 
a vote of confidence in the efforts of Premier Orlando and 
his associates, who quit the peace conference abruptly 
when President Wilson insisted that Fiume was to be 
given to the Jugo-Slavs. The vote followed an address 
by the premier in which he stated that Italy could yield 
nothing. He was constantly interrupted by applause and 
ended in a wild ovation. His address follows : 

"This statement aims to be only an impartial dec- 
laration of facts so the parliament may have all the 
elements necessary to pass judgment on the work of the 
government and of the Italian delegation at the peace 
conference as well as on the situation created by the 
last painful events. 

1 ' I think it opportune to recall briefly the attitude of 
the Italian delegation in that phase of the negotiations 
which began about the middle of March. At that time 
the preparatory work was finished and a program for 
definite deliberations had to be decided upon. Questions 
concerning peace with Germany were given precedence, 
but it was agreed that those regarding Italy should fol- 
low immediately." 

Premier Orlando went on to say that Italy believed 
that her claims were founded on such high reasons of 
justice and right that any international treaty or agree^ 
ment should be set aside so that they might be accepted. 

He also said that all through the period of negotia- 
tion to frame peace terms with the Germans the relations 
of the Italian delegation with the allied and associated 
powers could not have been more amicable or cordial, 
adding : 



WOODROW WILSON 677 

"If it was possible to deduce from our conversations 
the divergencies of views between the governments and 
above all between the Italians and Americans there never 
had been reason to believe these divergencies were ab 
solutely irreconcilable but up to the time of handing over 
the memorandum on April 14 by President Wilson, 
ting forth the American view, assurances had been given 
that the American delegation had not reached a definite 
decision regarding the Italian question. 

"Several times I stated with firmness consistent with 
courtesy that the program of the Italian territorial claims 
was based on essential cardinal points of acceptance, 
which was an absolute condition for the Italian govern- 
ment.' ' 

"This is synthetically the history of the activity of 
the Italian delegation from the middle of March to April 
13, when the convocation of the German delegates waa 
agreed upon with a reserve provision. On April 14 I had 
two long conversations with President Wilson in which 
the whole Italian territorial question was profoundly dis- 
cussed. Mr. Wilson concluded by handing me a mem- 
orandum, saying it represented the decision of the Ameri- 
can government on the question and authorizing me to 
communicate the same to the Italian parliament. I have 
distributed it today to all members. 

"President Wilson's message prevented us from re- 
fusing, as well as accepting, any proposal without first 
appealing to the Italian people and parliament, which 
alone, and nobody else, are entitled to pass judgment on 
the conduct and responsibility of the Italian government 
This, therefore, is my duty— to ask before this national 
assembly whether the Italian government and delegation, 
acting as they did, were faithful interpreters of the 
thought and will of parliament and the country. 

"The point of view of England and France can be 
summed up as follows: They have always recognized 
with perfect loyalty the pledge of honor contained in the 



678 WOODROW WILSON 

treaty of alliance between them and Italy, intending faith- 
fully to respect it, but they have declared that as that 
treaty does not include and indeed excludes Fiume from 
the Italian claims, they do not concur with Italy in this 
question. 

"They would only admit the principle of making 
Fiume an independent free state, on condition, however, 
that this would occur as a compromise and not as an ad- 
dition to the integral execution of the conditions of the 
treaty. 

"It only remains for me to further expound the 
Italian viewpoint. Italy firmly believes, before all, that 
her aspirations as I set them forth in my answer to Pres- 
ident Wilson's message are founded on such high and 
solemn reasons of justice and right that they should be 
integrally accepted, even putting aside any international 
treaty or agreement. 

"I wish, however, to repeat a simple fact, to wit: 
That if all Italy's aspirations were accepted in their en- 
tirety Italy would have in proportion to her population 
a number of inhabitants inferior to those assigned to 
other states as a consequence of the war. Therefore the 
accusation of entertaining imperialistic sentiments 
grieves and offends us. 

"This nation, which certainly has given no proofs 
of cupidity in discussing the billions requested for repa- 
rations and which has shown no excessive signs of emo- 
tion one way or another, even when vast and rich terri- 
tories had to be distributed in Africa and Asia among 
belligerents, and which has demonstrated that she prefers 
sentiment to utility until her attitude was a fault, has 
given the highest proof that she was fighting for her sa- 
cred rights. 

"Regaining in this hour all her energies and will and 
finding her reserves of enthusiasm and sacrifice inex- 
haustible, Italy has made it not a question of billions, nor 



WOODROW WILSON 

colonies, nor rich territories, but the suffering cry of her 

own brothers. 

"Regarding relations between us and our allies we 
esteem and love the generous people of France and Eng- 
land and the governments which represent them. Per- 
haps we love and esteem them too much so that we may 
not be sure that we will realize our rights which come 
from contracts which pledge them and their honor. I" 
must also be considered that in making these relations 
there is a sentiment which must be maintained befa 
friend and friend. Did Italy, perhaps, measure according 
to her contract the extent of the sacrifices which the war 
imposed?" 

Following Premier Orlando, Prof. Luigi Luzzatti, 
as spokesman for the majority party in the chamber, de- 
clared that the allies had never rewarded Italy's sacrifice 
as they deserved to be rewarded. Italy's restoration, he 
added, ought at least to be equal to that of the other allies. 

The speaker said President Wilson's message had 
hurt every Italian heart, and that the chamber must give 
a firm and clear reply, which would constitute a renewed 
expression of its confidence in the government. 

"Too much blood has been shed and too many sacri- 
fices, both for the present and for the future, have we 
made," continued Prof. Luzzatti, "for us not to be en- 
titled to demand that our sons along the Adriatic shall 
be able to feel themselves under the protection of their 
longed-for motherland. " 

The speaker declared that it was the duty ot all the 
deputies to support the government. 

Deputy Turati, the official leader of the Socialist 
party, declared that the Socialists would not only be de- 
fenders of the sacred right of self-determination in the 
case of Fiume, but also of the equally sacred nghl oi rev- 
olutionary Russia. t 

"For the same reason," continued Sig. Inrati, we 
cannot range ourselves with the Socialists of other b1 



680 WOODROW WILSON 

who in accordance with the entente ideology have ap- 
plauded the new African and Asiatic empire of Great 
Britain, American domination in Europe, and the occu- 
pation of the Saar region, where there is not a soul who 
speaks French, just as in Fiume there is not a soul who 
does not speak Italian. ' ' 

President Wilson issued another statement on his 
stand in the Fiume dispute on the same day the Italian 
chamber of deputies commanded the course pursued by 
Premier Orlando. It read: 

" There is no question to which I have given more 
careful or anxious thought than I have given to this, be- 
cause, in common with all my colleagues, it is my earnest 
desire to see the utmost justice done to Italy. 

1 ' Throughout my consideration of it, however, I have 
felt that there was one matter in which I had no choice 
and could wish to have none. I felt bound to square every 
conclusion that I should reach as accurately as possible 
with the fourteen principles of peace which I set forth in 
my address to the congress of the United States on the 
8th of January, 1918, and in subsequent addresses. 

" These fourteen points and the principles laid down 
in the subsequent addresses were formally adopted with 
only a single reservation by the powers associated against 
Germany and will constitute the basis of peace with Ger- 
many. I do not feel at liberty to suggest one basis for 
peace with Germany and another peace with Austria. 

"It will be remembered that in reply to a communica- 
tion from the Austrian government offering to enter into 
negotiations for an armistice and peace on the basis of 
the fourteen points to which I have alluded I said that 
there was one matter to which those points no longer ap- 
plied. They had demanded autonomy for the several 
states which had constituted parts of the Austro-Hungar- 
ian empire and I pointed out that it must now be left to 
the choice of the people of these several countries what 
their destinies and political relations should be. 



WOODROW WILSON 681 

"They have chosen, with the sympathy of the whole 
world, to be set up as independent states. Their complete 
separation from Austria and the complete dissolution oi 
the Austro-Hungarian empire has given a ne* 
and significance to the settlements which may be effected 
with regard at any rate to the eastern boundaries of Italy. 

"Personally I am quite willing that Italy should he 
accorded, along the whole front of her northern frontier 
and wherever she comes into contact with Austrian ter- 
ritory, all that was accorded her in the so-called pact of 
London, but I am of the clear opinion that the pact of 
London can no longer apply to the settlement of her east- 
ern boundaries. 

"The line drawn in the pact of London conceived for 
the purpose of establishing an absolutely adequate fron- 
tier of safety for Italy against any possible hostility or 
aggression on the part of Austria. 

"But Austria-Hungary no longer exists. These east- 
ern frontiers will touch countries stripped of the military 
and naval power of Austria, settled in interdependence 
of Austria, and organized for the purpose of satisfying 
legitimate national aspirations and created states not 
hostile to the new European order, but arising out of it, 
interested in its maintenance, dependent upon the culti- 
vation of friendships and bound to a common policy of 
peace and accommodation by the covenant of the league of 
nations. 

"It is with these facts in mind that I have ap- 
proached the Adriatic question. It is commonly agreed, 
and I very heartily adhere to the agreement, that the 
ports of Triest and Pola, and with them the -renter pari 
of the Istrian peninsula, should be ceded to Italy, her 
eastern frontier running along the natural strategic line 
established by the physical conformation of the country. 

"Within this line on the Italian side will lie con 
siderable bodies of non-Italian populations, hut then- 
fortunes are so naturally linked by the nature of the coun- 



682 WOODROW WILSON 

try itself with the rest of the Italian people that I think 
their inclusion is fully justified. 

" There would be no justification, in my judgment, 
in including Fiume or any part of the coast line to the 
south of Fiume within the boundaries of the Italian king- 
dom. Fiume is, by situation and by all the circumstances 
of its development, not Italian, but an international port 
serving the countries to the east and north of the Gulf of 
Fiume. 

"Just because it is an international port and cannot 
with justice be subordinated to any one sovereignty, it 
is my clear judgment that it should enjoy a very consider- 
able degree of geniume autonomy, and while it should be 
included no doubt within the customs system of the new 
Jugo-Slavic state, it should, nevertheless, be left free in 
its own interest and in the interest of the states lying 
about it, to devote itself to the service of the commerce 
which naturally and inevitably seeks an outlet or inlet 
at its port. 

"The states which it serves will be new states. They 
will have complete confidence in their access to an out- 
let on the sea. The friendship and the connections of the 
future will largely depend upon such an arrangement as I 
have suggested and friendship, co-operation, and free- 
dom of action must underlie every arrangement of peace 
if peace is to be lasting. 

"I believe there will be common agreement that the 
island of Lissa should be ceded to Italy and that she 
should retain the port of Volpna. I believe that it will be 
generally agreed that the fortifications which the Aus- 
trian government established upon the islands near the 
eastern coast of the Adriatic should be permanently dis- 
pensed with under international guarantee and that the 
disarmament which is to be arranged under the league of 
nations should limit the states on the eastern coast of the 
Adriatic to only such minor naval forces as are necessary 
for policing the waters of the islands and the coast. 



WOODROW WILSON 

"These are conclusions which I am forced to by com 
pulsion of the understandings which underlie the whole 
initiation of the present peace. 

"No other conclusions seem to be acceptable to being 
made concise with these understandings. They were un- 
derstandings accepted by the whole world and bear with 
peculiar compulsion upon the United States because the 
privilege w r as accorded her of taking the initiative o! 
bringing about the negotiations for peace and her plans 
underlie the wdiole difficult business. 

"And certainly Italy obtains, under such a settlement, 
the great historic object which her people have bo Long 
had in mind. The historical w r rongs inflicted upon her 
by Austria-Hungary and by a long series of unjust trans 
actions which I hope w T ill before long sink out of the mem- 
ory of man, are completely redressed. Nothing is de- 
nied her which will complete her national unity. 

"Here and there upon the islands of the Adriatic 
and upon the eastern coast of that sea there are settle 
ments containing large Italian elements of population, but 
the pledge under which the new states enter the family <>i : 
nations will abundantly safeguard the liberty, the de- 
velopment, and all the just rights of national and racial 
minorities, and back of these safeguards will always lie 
the watchful authority of the league of nations. 

"And at the very outset we shall have avoided the 
fatal error of making Italy's nearest neighbors «)iilu>r east 

her enemies and nursing just such a sense of injustice as 
has disturbed the peace of Europe for generations to 
gether and played no small part in bringing < »n the terrible 
conflict through which we have just passed." 



CHAPTER XL 
JAPANESE AIMS ATTAINED. 

On April 30th, the Chinese objections to Japanese 
occupation of the Shantung peninsula went down to de- 
feat with President Wilson holding forth to the last in 
favor of the Chinese. He declared that Japan was bound 
by a prior agreement to withdraw from the peninsula 
and expressed surprise when they failed to do so. 

Although it had been fondly explained that Great 
Britain had welcomed the league of nations as an ex- 
cuse for disentangling herself from the hampering al- 
liance with Japan, which caused bad blood between Eng- 
land and Canada, Australia, and the United States it 
developed that Lloyd George stood solidly behind Baron 
Makino on the Japanese demands for the former Ger- 
man colonies. 

Premier Clemenceau, on behalf of France, stood by 
without coming to President Wilson's assistance and let 
China be mulcted of all her rights in Shangtung — one of 
her richest provinces. 

The Japanese delegation played the craftiest game 
at the peace conference from the very beginning. While 
the European, American, and Asiatic delegations were 
wrangling among themselves over points in which Japan 
was disinterested, Viscount Chinda, Matsui, and the 
other Tokio delegates sat by placidly, mutely — listening 
always, speaking never. 

Then Japan began erecting camouflage, which was 
to hide her gobbling of Shantung. Equality of all races, 
as an article in the league of nations covenant, was the 
pretext seized upon by Japan. Although China was 
equally interested in lifting the Asiatic exclusion bills, 

684 




THE R 



(1) ALSACE-LORRAINE. (2) THE SEAR VALLEY. (3) LUXEMBOi 
(7 PROVINCES CEDED TO DENMARK. (8) DANZIG. (9) MEMEL. H 
TO POLAND. (13) POSEN. (14) SILESIA CEDED TO POLAND. (L 
(18) INDEPENDENT RUTHENIANS. (19) RUSSIAN TERRITOR1 RE 
CANAL (C) THE ELBE INTERNATIONALIZED. (D) THE VITAV/ 
OPENED TO GRODNO. (G) THE DANUBE INTERNATIONALIZED. 




F EUROPE 

CES CEDED TO BELGIUM. (5) NEUTRAL ZONE. 6 M 
L FRONTIERS. (11) INDEPENDENT POLAND. (12 PROA 
rCHANGED. (16) CZECHOSLOVAKIA. (17 INDEPENDENT 
RKEY. (A) THE RHINE INTERNATIONALIZED. B THE Kl 
ALIZED. (E) THE ODER OPENED TO OPPA. P THE Nil 
-E INTERNATIONALIZED. 



WOODROW WILSON 

the Chinese delegation refused to become an accomplice 
with Japan, while Chinda and Makino drafted the de- 
mands, and argued the points over embodying a clause in 
the covenant providing merely innocuously, "nationals 
of all countries members of this league will be treated as 
equals in fact and in law. ' ' 

Japan was prepared to spring the trap several v. 
prior when the Italian dissatisfaction became apparent. 
The Japanese, however, delayed action, hoping to profit 
by events. 

The Italians delivered their ultimatum, it was re- 
jected, and the Italian delegation quit the peace confer- 
ence. 

It was on the eve of the German delegates' arrival 
at Versailles — indeed the advance guard of the German 
delegates already had arrized at the Hotel de Reservoirs. 
It was Japan's time to strike — opportunity knocked at 
the door of the Hotel Bristol in the Place Vendome, wherfl 
the Japanese delegation was housed. 

Every one realized that the crisis, arising when the 
Italians withdrew^ from the peace conference, might pos- 
sibly be averted through the rest of the allied and 
sociated powers sticking together and presenting a firm 
front against the enemy. Every one realized, like? 
that a further split among the allies, especially it' another 
one of the big five quit, would present ser'nms difficulties. 

Then Japan struck. 

At the plenary session of the peace conference, when 
the league of nations was adopted Makino read the pro 
posed Japanese amendment. But he removed the sting 
from the amendment by admitting that Japan would 
press the point and did not intend to leave the peace eon 
ference if the amendment was overruled. 

That permitted the Japanese delegation to appear 
before the big three— Wilson, Lloyd George, ( ilemenceau 
—the following morning with clean hands. They had not 
threatened to break up the confeienee -they had made ao 



690 WOODROW WILSON 

threats — liad never openly or flatly demanded anything. 

But they did demand something. They demanded im- 
mediate acquiescence in all their claims upon Kiau-Chau 
forthwith, upon pain of quitting the conference, with the 
advance guard of the German peace delegates at Ver- 
sailles, and Brockdorff Rantzau due upon the morrow. 

Although the 40,000,000 Chinese in the Shantung 
peninsula were clamoring against the Japanese invasion, 
every right and every concession in this province, and 
despite the "fourteen points" requiring self-determina- 
tion, President Wilson was forced to give in before the 
united stand of Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Japan 
Rather than see the peace conference blown up by the 
Japanese quitting, he agreed to the spoliation of China 
and the transfer of the German rights and added con- 
cessions in Shantung to Japan. 

It has been told in the preceding pages how Japan 
tricked Great Britain and France in acquiescence in her 
plan of occupying Chinese territory. When the peace 
conference agreed to the Japanese demands, other secret 
agreements came to light. 

This is dated Feb. 20, 1917, Russian embassy in 
Tokio: 

"Responding to the Japanese minister of foreign 
affairs, the Russian ambassador is charged to give to the 
Japanese government assurance that it can entirely count 
upon the support of the Russian government in the 
eventual cession to Japan of rights belonging to Germany 
in Shantung and the German islands north of the equator, 
ocupied by Japanese forces. 

The Italian government merely instructed its min- 
ister of foreign affairs to tell Japan that the Italians had 
no objection regarding the matter. 

Here is the demand the Japanese ambassador at 
Rome made upon Italy, dated March 28, 1917 : 

"The Imperial Japanese government intends to de- 
mand from the German government during the negotia- 



WOODROW WILSON 691 

tions of peace the cession of the territorial rights and 
special interests that Germany possessed before the war 
in Shantung and the Pacific islands, situated north of the 
equator. In view of the present phase of events the 
Japanese government believes it is well to assure Itself 
of the entire support of the English, French, and Russian 
governments when its demands, above mentioned, are 
presented to the German government at the peace nego- 
tiations. 

"In making the Italian government acquainted with 
these very confidential Japanese demands, and in disclos- 
ing that the arrangement has recently been made between 
the imperial Japanese government and the British, 
French, and Russian governments, the Japanese govern- 
ment has the firm conviction that the Italian government 
will be inspired by the sentiments of friendship, which 
animate two countries, and in consideration of the lie 
sity of mutual agreement for triumphing in the common 
cause. ' ' 

The above facsimile documents, passing between the 
foreign ministers and the ambassadors, indicate how, 
with Russia and Italy out, France and England both were 
tightly sewed up by secret treaties to support the Japanese 
claims. While neither Lloyd George nor Clemencean 
openly espoused Makino's cause, they dared not opp 
it, and could not back up President Wilson in his attempl 
to aid China, according to his ' ' fourteen points. ' ' 

There was evidence in the hands of the Chinese Becrel 
service indicating that Japan and Germany reached an 
unofficial agreement shortly after the armistice in Copen- 
hagen regarding the transfer of German rights and con- 
cessions in Shantung to Japan. It was recalled thai in 
1916 a Japanese representative named Ota met certain 
German representatives at Stockholm, and again in L918, 
when Ota was again at Stockholm. 

Japan assured France and England that Germany 
would not oppose transferring her rights in Shantung to 



692 WOODROW WILSON 

Japan, which gave rise to the opinion in certain quarters 
that the entire affair was cut and dried between German 
and Japanese agents beforehand. 

The Chinese peace delegation announced it had no 
intention of quitting the peace conference, despite the 
grievious wrong done it, but there was a strong feeling 
among certain delegates to appeal the big three's de- 
cision to the United States senate, as China counted sev- 
eral strong friends among the most powerful senators, 
including Lodge. 

Senator Lodge studied the situation and issued warn- 
ings of Japan's probable policy in grabbing the old Ger- 
man concessions, despite Count Okuma 's statement Aug. 
24th, 1914, that " As a premier of Japan I have stated and 
I now again state to the people of America and the world 
that Japan has no ulterior motive, no desire to secure 
more territory, no thought of depriving China or other 
people of anything which they now possess. My govern- 
ment and my people have given their word and pledge 
which will be as honorably kept as Japan always keeps 
its promises." 

Despite Okuma 's promise, however, Japan made its 
infamous twenty-one demands upon China the following 
January, insisting that China keep the matter secret, and 
demanded the recognition of special interests of Japan 
in China. 

American military and naval opinion in the United 
States foresaw a grave menace against the Philippines 
by giving Japan a naval base at Palaos and the Caroline 
islands, which cover both the southern flanks of the 
Philippines, and might enable Japanese submarines to 
operate from every angle against the Philippines. 

"The peace conference concessions to Japan of all 
the Japanese claims against China in Shantung marked 
a tragic and overwhelming defeat of the high-minded 
American principles as heretofore expounded and carried 
to victory by President Wilson," remarked a member 



WOODROAY WILSON 693 

of the Chinese peace delegation. "President Wilson won 
out upon his principles regarding Fiume and Danzig, but 
was forced to sacrifice the Shantung peninsula with 40,- 
000,000 Chinese to Japanese domination." 

In a session beginning at 3:10 p. m., May 1st, I 
and lasting barely five minutes, the German plenipol 
tiaries to the peace congress presented their credentials. 

It was the first step in the peace negotiations. The 
credentials were presented to representatives of the allies 
and the United States. 

Pale and almost fainting from emotion, Count von 
Brockdorff-Rantzau, the German foreign secretary and 
head of the delegation, passed through what evidently 
was one of the bitterest moments of his life. He was 
barely able to sustain himself through the brief ceremony 
and reach the waiting automobile, which had brought him 
to the gathering. 

The meeting took place in the room of the Trianon 
hotel, formerly used for the sessions of the supreme mili- 
tary council. Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau on entering 
was accompanied by Herr Landsberg, Prof. Schuecking, 
and two secretaries, and waiting for him were the allied 
representatives, grouped around Jules Cambon, tin- 
former French ambassador to Berlin, who is chairman of 
the commission. 

Other members of the allied party included Henry 
"White of the United States, Lord Harding, Great Britain, 
and Ambassador Matsui, Japan. 

M. Cambon immediately addressed Count < >CK 

dorff-Rantzau, stating that he was chairman of I 
mission entrusted by the allied powers to receive and 
amine the credentials of the German delegates as tin- first 
step in a conference which, it was hoped, would lead to 

peace. 

"Here are ours," continued M. Cambon, extending 
as he spoke the formal credentials of the allied rommis- 
sion as plenipotentiaries to the congress. 



694 WOODROW WILSON 

Count von BrockdorfT-Rantzau surrendered the 
German credentials, with even less of a formal address, 
his emotion being too great to enable him to deliver an 
extended discourse. 

After these brief ceremonies the Germans turned and 
left the hall, walking a few steps to the cars in waiting. 
They were followed immediately by the allied representa- 
tives. 

The whole ceremony was over by 3 :20 o 'clock. The 
allied delegates then rode to the chateau to inspect the 
hall of mirrors, where the treaty will be signed, and 
eventually returned to the hotel for tea. 

With the time at hand for acceptance or refusal of 
the peace terms, Germany was in a helpless position from 
a military standpoint. Authentic information collected 
systematically after the armistice and compiled by the 
American army of occupation showed the government had 
only 225,000 troops available for service, and, even in- 
cluding remnants of the old army units in garrison, which 
were partly useless, the total under arms was not more 
that 325,000. 

On the eastern front were 140,000, mostly volunteers. 
The Luettwitz corps in and near Berlin totaled 40,000. 
Good free will or volunteer units in Westphalia did not 
include more than 25,000 men, and similar units elsewhere 
no more than 20,000. 

May 1st officially marked the end of the German de- 
mobilization, which began immediately after the armis- 
tice, first releasing the 1920 class, which was still in train- 
ing, and then the old classes successively down to the 
1899 class, the last men of which should have been and 
probably were discharged on April 30. 

In January, when it became clear the old army must 
go, but that troops were needed to preserve order and for 
the eastern front, numerous enterprising officers began 
organizing volunteer units, no two alike, except that all 
ostensibly were for the eastern front. Later these units, 



WOODROW WILSON 695 

usually termed freiwilligers, or volunteers, began oom- 

bining, and proved their worth in suppressing du 
They were almost without exception officially adopted by 
the Ebert-Scheidemann government, and were .-till 
main strength of the new army. 

In addition to these units, almost every old army 
regiment was trying to save something out of the wreck 
by recruiting a volunteer detachment to pass over into 
the reichswehr or new army. It was unsettled how far 
these units could keep up their old regimental identities, 
but apparently all were to be absorbed into the new reich- 
wehr organizations. Few of these volunteer detachments 
proved of much value. 

The national assembly at "Weimar officially estab- 
lished a new army or reichswehr until May 1, 1 , . , 'J ( >, and 
permitted the administration to arrange the details. The 
war ministry ordered an army of approximately 250,000, 
with 50,000 good additional home guards, entirely volun- 
teers. Roughly speaking, there was one brigade of cadi 
old corps in the various districts throughout Germany. 

One important change from the old system was the 
creation of the Luettwitz group or army with head- 
quarters in Berlin. This recruited from all Germany, 
and practically was the national government army, di- 
rectly under the war minister, with about 50,00n men. 
This great freiwilliger unit had strength and was Nbske's 
great reliance in suppressing all Spartacan disorders. 

President Wilson, Premier Clemenceau, and Premier 
Lloyd George, composing the council of three, on May 
4th, sent a communication to the Italian government in- 
viting it to resume its place at the peace conference. 

The council's invitation was of such a nature that 
Italy accepted it and that the relations temporarily 
broken by the departure from Paris of Premier < Orlando 
and Foreign Minister Sonnino were restored by the i 
ence of Italian delegates at the conference before the 
treaty was delivered to the German delegates. 



696 WOODROW WILSON 

council of three considered the Italian situation in its de- 
liberations and finally determined upon an initiative of 
the friendliest nature. 

The council of three agreed to give Belgium full war 
costs, plus damages, the total amounting to between five 
and six billion dollars. The United States and the allies 
waived direct payment of Belgium's indebtedness to 
them, and accepted German securities to be paid in rep- 
aration. 

The council held the settlement no violation of the 
Wilson formula that Germany be not compelled to pay 
war costs to the allies, because Belgium's case was ex- 
ceptional. Her integrity was violated without a hostile 
act on her part. 

The peace treaty was adopted by the allied repre- 
sentatives in plenary council on May 6th, after a five hour 
session, when the articles concerning the trial of the 
kaiser for responsibility for crimes perpetrated during 
the war were adopted. The subject of the sinking of the 
German fleet was left open, as in any event the high seas 
fleet would not be returned to Germany. 

Signor Crespi represented Italy at the secret session 
and raised no objection throughout. 

Everything was in readiness to submit the peace 
treaty to the German delegates. Two hundred copies 
were to be handed to the enemy delegation. 

The press was to be present at Versailles only 
through the personal insistence of President Wilson, who 
was antagonized by Lloyd George and Clemenceau, both 
claiming that the presence of newspaper correspondents 
would detract from the dignity of the affair. 

The president insisted it would not, and when France 
and Britain declared there was no room for reporters the 
president asserted he would meet with the Big Three at 
Trianon Palace hotel and demonstrate to them that there 
was plenty of space for the journalists. Thus the presi- 
dent convoked Clemenceau and Lloyd George at Ver- 



WOODROW WILSON 

sailles and the trio inspected the dining room of the IVtit 
Trianon. President Wilson proved that there was room 
for at least forty-five reporters. 

Although the session was secret, there was dissent in 
some quarters on the treaty. 

Marshal Foch declared that the security given 
France was inadequate from a military point of view, and 
said it was his personal conviction that the treaty should 
not be signed. 

The marshal emphasized the necessity of France 
holding the bridgeheads along the Rhine, and said that 
occupation limited to fifteen years was not sufficient 

Italy was represented at the session by Sig. CrespL 
The Italian spokesman said he desired to make reserva- 
tions concerning any provision in the treaty not accept- 
able to Italy. 

The Chinese delegates presented a brief, formal, and 
dignified protest concerning the disposition of Kiau- 
Chau. 

Lu Cheng-Hsiang, the Chinese foreign minister, 
asked for reconsideration of the decision regarding Shan- 
tung and Kiau-Chau. The Chinese foreign minister said 
that in the opinion of the Chinese delegation the decision 
had been made without regard for justice or for the pro- 
tection of the territorial integrity of China. He said that 
if reconsideration was impossible, he desired to make 
reservations on behalf of China. 

The Portuguese delegates expressed dissatisfaction 
regarding the treatment accorded Portugal. 

Following a protest by delegates of nations not 
originally included among those to be present at the Ver- 
sailles ceremony, it was decided that the following addi- 
tional delegations would be admitted: China, Si.un. 
Cuba, Gautemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Panama. Liberia, 
and Honduras. 

These supplemented the powers originally 
ignated, which comprised the United States, Greai 



698 WOODROW WILSON 

Britain and her dominions, France, Italy, Japan, Bel- 
gium, Brazil, Serbia, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Rou- 
mania, and Czecko-Slovakia. 

The first list was drawn on the theory that only those 
of the powers which had rendered efficient aid in prose- 
cuting the war were to attend the ceremony. The other 
allies, it was intended, would be permitted a position 
outside the palace at the time the ceremony took place, but 
the Chinese and other participants in the war were not 
willing to attend unless allowed representation within the 

hall. 

The Chinese delegation appealed to President Wilson 
to intercede with the conference officials. 



CHAPTER XLI 
THE GERMANS RECEIVE THE TREATY. 

The peace treaty was handed to the German emis- 
saries on May 7th, 1919, in the Trianon Palace in Paris by 
Premier Clemenceau. Standing at the head of the table 
with the premier were President Wilson and Lloyd 
George. 

Premier Clemenceau, as chairman of the congress, 
in addressing the enemy plenipotentiaries, said : 

"Gentlemen, plenipotentiaries of the German em- 
pire : It is neither the time nor the place for superfluous 
words. You have before you the accredited plenipoten- 
tiaries of all the small and great powers united to fight 
together in the war that has been so cruelly imposed npon 
them. The time has come when we must settle our ac- 
count. 

"You have asked for peace. We are ready to give 

you peace. 

"We shall present to you now a book which conl 
our conditions. You will be given every facility te 
examine these conditions, and the time necessary for it. 
Everything will be done with the courtesy that is the 
privilege of civilized nations. 

"To give you my thought completely yon will find 
ns ready to give you any explanation yon want, bnl we 
must say at the same time that this second treaty of 
Versailles has cost us too much not to take on our Bide 
all the necessary precautions and guarantees that the 
peace shall be a lasting one. 

"I will give you notice of the procedure that has 
been adopted by the conference for discussion, and if any 

699 



700 WOODROW WILSON 

one has any observations to offer he will have the right 
to do so. 

"No oral discussion is to take place, and the observa- 
tions of the German delegation will have to be submitted 
in writing. 

"The German plenipotentiaries will know that they 
have the maximum period of fifteen days within which to 
present in English and French their written observations 
on the whole of the treaty. 

"Before the expiration of the aforesaid period of 
fifteen days, the German delegates will be entitled to send 
their reply on particular headings of the treaty, or to ask 
questions in regard to them. 

"After having examined the observations presented 
within the aforementioned period, the supreme council 
will send their answer in writing to the German delegation 
and determine the period within which the final global 
(world wide) answer must be given by this delegation. 

"The president wishes to add that when we receive, 
after two or three or four or five days, any observations 
from the German delegation on any point of the treaty, 
we shall not wait until the end of the fifteen days to give 
our answer. We shall at once proceed in the way in- 
dicated by this document. ' ' 

Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau, head of the German 
delegation, speaking in German, said : 

' ' Gentlemen : We are deeply impressed with the sub- 
lime task which has brought us hither to give a durable 
peace to the world. We are under no illusions as to the 
extent of our clef eat and the degree of our want of power. 
We know that the power of the German arms is broken. 

"We know the power of the hatred which we en- 
counter here, and we have heard the passionate demand 
that the vanquishers make us pay as the vanquished, and 
shall punish those who are worthy of. being punished. 

"It is demanded from us that we shall confess our- 
selves to be the only ones guilty of the war. Such a con- 



WOODROW WILSON Tin 

f ession in my mouth would be a lie. We are from from de 

dining any responsibility for this great war of the world 
or that it was made in the way in which it was made. 

"The attitude of the former German government al 
The Hague peace conference, its actions and omissions in 
the tragic twelve days of July, have certainly contributed 
to the disaster. But we energetically deny that Germany 
and its people, who were convinced that they were making 
a war of defense, were alone guilty. 

"Nobody will want to contend that the disaster t<><>k 
its course only in the disastrous moment when the succes- 
sor to the throne of Austria-Hungary fell the victim of 
murderous hands. In the last fifty years, the imperial' 
ism of all the European states has chronically poisoned 
the international situation. The policy of retaliation and 
the policy of expansion and the disregard of the rights of 
people to determine their own destiny have contributed 
to the illness of Europe, which saw its crisis in the world 
war. 

"Russian mobilization took from the statesmen the 
possibility of healing, and gave the decision into the hands 
of the military powers. Public opinion in all the count ries 
of our adversaries is resounding with the crimes which 
Germany is said to have committed in the war. Here also 
we are ready to confess wrong that may have been done. 

"We have not come here to belittle the responsibility 
of the men who have waged the war, politically and 
economically, or to deny any crimes which may have been 
committed against the rights of peoples. 

"We repeat the declaration which has been made in 
the German reichstag at the beginning of the war, that ifl 
to say 'wrong has been done to Belgium,' and we are 
willing to repair it. 

"But in the manner of making war also Germany i> 
not the only guilty one. Every nation knows the d< 
of people which the best nationals only remember with 
regret. I do not want to answer reproaches by re 



702 WOODROW WILSON 

proaches, but I ask them to remember, when reparation is 
demanded, not to forget the armistice. 

"It took us six weeks until we got it at last, and six 
more until we came to know your conditions of peace. 

' ' Crimes in war may not be excusable, but they are 
committed in the struggle for victory and in the defense 
of national existence, and passions are aroused which 
make the conscience of people blunt. 

' ' The hundreds of thousands of non-combatants who 
have perished since Nov. 11 by reason of the blockades 
were killed with cold deliberation after our adversaries 
had conquered and victory had been assured to them. 
Think of that when you speak of guilt and of punishment. 

• l ' The measure of the guilt of all those who have taken 
part can only be stated by an impartial inquest before a 
neutral commission, before which all the principal persons 
of the tragedy are allowed to speak and to which all the 
archives are open. We have demanded such an inquest 
and we repeat this demand. 

"In this conference also, where we stand toward our 
adversaries alone and without any allies, we are not quite 
without protection. You yourselves have brought us an 
ally — namely : the right which is guaranteed by the treaty 
and by the principles of peace. 

"The allies and associated governments have fore- 
sworn, in the time between the fifth of October and the 
fifth of November, 1918, a peace of violence and have 
written a peace of justice on their banner. 

"On the fifth of October, 1918, the German govern- 
ment proposed the principles of the president of the 
United States of North America as the basis of peace 
and on the fifth of November their secretary of state, Mr. 
Lansing, declared that the allied and associated powers 
agreed to this basis with two definite deviations. 

"The principles of President Wilson have thus be- 
come binding to both parties to the war — for you, as well 
as for us, and also for our former allies. The various 



WOODROW WILSON 703 

principles demand from us heavy national and economical 
sacrifices, but the holy fundamental rights of all peo] 
are protected by this treaty. The conscience of the world 
is behind it. There is no nation which might violate it 
without punishment. 

"You will find us ready to examine upon this basis 
the preliminary peace which you have proposed to as, 
with a firm intention of rebuilding in common work with 
you that which has been destroys! and repairing any 
wrong that may have been committed, principally the 
wrong to Belgium, and to show to mankind new aims of 
political and social progress. 

"Considering the tremendous quantity of probl 
which arise, we ought as soon as possible, to make an ex- 
amination of the principal tasks by special commissions 
of experts, on the basis of the treaty which you have pro- 
posed to us. 

"In this it will be our chief task to reestablish the 
devastated vigor of mankind and of all the people who 
have taken part by international protection of the life, 
health and liberty of the working classes. 

"As our next aim, I consider the reconstruction of 
the territories of Belgium and of northern Fiance which 
have been occupied by us and which have been destroyed 
by the war. 

"To do so we have taken upon ourselves the solemn 
obligation and we are resolved to execute it to the extenl 
which shall have been agreed upon between us. This task 
we cannot" do without the cooperation of our former ad- 
versaries. We cannot accomplish the work without the 
technical and financial participation of the victorioni 
peoples and you cannot execute that without as. 

"Impoverished Europe must desire that the recon- 
struction shall be fulfilled with the greatesl Bucoess ana 
with as little expense as in any way possible. This desire 
can only be fulfilled by a clear understanding about the 
best methods to be employed. 



704 WOODROW WILSON 

"It would be the worst method to go on and have 
the work done by German prisoners of war. Certainly 
this work is cheap, but it would cost the world dear if 
hatred and despair shall seize the German people when 
they consider that their brothers, sons, and fathers who 
are prisoners are kept prisoners beyond the preliminary 
peace in former penal work. 

"Without any immediate solution of this question, 
which has been drawn out too long, we cannot come to a 
durable peace. 

"Experts of both sides will have to examine how the 
German people may come up to their financial obligations 
to repair, without succumbing under their heavy burden. 
A crash would bereave those who have a right to repair, 
to the advantages to which they have a claim, and would 
draw after it irretrievable disorder of the whole 
European economical system. 

"The vanquisher as well as the vanquished peoples 
must guard against this menacing danger, with its incal- 
culable consequences. There is only one means of banish- 
ing it — unlimited confessions of the economic and social 
solidarity of all the peoples in a free and rising league of 
nations. 

"Gentlemen: The sublime thought to be derived 
from the most terrible disaster in the history of mankind 
is the league of nations. The greatest progress in the 
development of mankind has been pronounced and will 
make its way. Only if the gates of the league of nations 
are thrown open to all who are of good will can the aim 
be attained, and only then the dead of this war will not 
have died in vain. 

' ' The German people in their hearts are ready to take 
upon themselves their heavy lot, if the bases of peace 
which have been established are not any more shaken. 

' ' The peace which may not be defended in the name 
of right before the world always calls forth new resistance 
against it. Nobody will be capable of subscribing to it 



WOODROW WILSON 

with good conscience, for it will not be possible of fulfill- 
ment. Nobody could be able to take upon himself the 
guarantee of its execution which ought to lie in it- 
nature. 

"We shall examine the document handed to as with 
good will and in the hope that the final resull of our in 
terview may be subscribed to by all of □ 

Immediately after Brockdorff-Rantzau concluded his 
speech, the German emissaries were accompanied from 
the rooms by the aides assigned to protect them and the 
session of the peace conference came to a close for the 
time being. 

The entire peace treaty contained 80,000 words, but 
for the sake of facility, an official summary was published 
by the peace conference. It follows: 



CHAPTER XLII 
THE PEACE TREATY. 

"The preamble names as parties of the one part the 
United States, the British empire, France, Italy, and 
Japan, described as the five allied and associated powers, 
and Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, 
Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, the Hedjaz, Honduras, Liberia, 
Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, 
Serbia, Siam, Czecho-Slovakia, and Uruguay, who with 
the five above are described as the allied and associated 
powers, and on the other part Germany. 

"It states that : Bearing in mind that on the request 
of the then imperial German government, an armistice 
was granted on Nov. 11, 1918, by the five allied and asso- 
ciated powers in order that a treaty of peace might be 
concluded with her, and whereas the allied and associated 
powers being equally desirous that the war in which they 
were successfully involved, directly or indirectly, and 
which originated in the declaration of war by Austria- 
Hungary on July 28, 1914, against Serbia, the declaration 
of war by Germany against Russia on Aug. 1, 1914, and 
against France on Aug. 3, 1914, and in the invasion of 
Belgium, should be replaced by a firm, just, and durable 
peace, the plenipotentiaries (having communicated their 
full powers found in good and due form) have agreed as 
follows : 

"From the coming into force of the present treaty, 
the state of war will terminate. From the moment and 
subject to the provisions of this treaty official relations 
with Germany, and with each of the German states, will 
be resumed by the allied and associated powers. 

706 



WOODROW WILSoX 71,7 

Section 1 

"The covenant of the league of nations constil 
section 1 of the peace treaty, which places upon the league 
many specific duties in addition to its general dutii 

"It may question Germany at any time for a viola- 
tion of the neutralized zone cast of the Rhine as a threat 
against the world's peace. 

"It will appoint three of the five members of the 
Saar commission, oversee its regime, and cany oul the 
plebiscite. 

"It will appoint the high commissioner of Danzig, 
guarantee the independence of the free city, and arrai 
for treaties between Danzig and Germany and IN .lain 1. 

"It will work out the mandatory system to be ap 
plied to the former German colonies, and act as a final 
court in part of the plebiscites of the Belgian-German 
frontier and in disputes as to the Kiel canal, and decide 
certain of the economic and financial problems. 

"An international conference on labor is to be held 
in October under its direction, and another on the interna- 
tional control of ports, waterways, and railways is Pore 
shadowed. 

"The members of the league will be the signatories 
of the covenant and other states invited to accede, who 
must lodge a declaration of accession without reservation 
within two months. 

"A new T state, dominion, or colony may be admitted 
provided its admission is agreed by two-thirds of the 
assembly. 

"A state may withdraw upon giving two y< 
notice, if it has fulfilled all its international obligations. 

Section II 

"A permanent secretariat will be established at the 
seat of the league, which will be at Geneva. 

"Assembly— The assembly will consist oi represen 



708 WOODROW WILSON 

tatives of the members of the league, and will meet at 
stated intervals. Voting will be by states. Each mem- 
ber will have one vote and not more than three represen- 
tatives. 

"Council — The council will consist of representa- 
tives of the five great allied powers, together with repre- 
sentatives of four members selected by the assembly from 
time to time ; it may co-operate with additional states and 
will meet at least once a year. Members not represented 
will be invited to send a representative when questions 
affecting their interests are discussed. Voting will be by 
states. Each state will have one vote and not more than 
one representative. Decisions taken by the assembly and 
council must be unanimous, except in regard to procedure 
and in certain cases specified in the covenant and in the 
treaty, where decisions will be by a majority. 

"Armaments — The council will formulate plans for 
a reduction of armaments for consideration and adoption. 
These plans will be revised every ten years. Once they 
are adopted, no member must exceed the armaments text 
without the concurrence of the council. All members will 
exchange full information as to armaments and pro- 
grams, and a permanent commission will advise the coun- 
cil on military and naval questions. 

"Preventing of War — Upon any war or threat of war 
the council will meet to consider what common action shall 
be taken. Members are pledged to submit matters of dis- 
pute to arbitration or inquiry and not to resort to war 
until three months after the award. 

' ' Members agree to carry out an arbitral award and 
not to go to war with any party to the dispute which com- 
plies with it ; if a member fails to carry out the award the 
council will propose the necessary measures. 

"The council will formulate plans for the establish- 
ment of a permanent court of international justice to 
determine international disputes or to give advisory 
opinions. 



WOODRCnY WILSON 709 

''Members who do not submit their cases to arbitra 
tion must accept the jurisdiction of the assembly, li' the 
council, less the parties to the dispute, is unanimously 
agreed upon the rights of it, the members agree thai they 
will not go to war with any party to the dispute which 
complies with its recommendations. In this case a recom- 
mendation by the assembly, concurred in by all its mem- 
bers represented, less the parties to the dispute, will have 
the force of a unanimous recommendation by the council 

"In either case if the necessary agreement cannol be 
secured the members reserve the right to take Buch action 
as may be necessary for the maintenance of right and 
justice. 

"Members resorting to war in disregard of the cov- 
enant will immediately be debarred from all intercourse 
with other members. The council will in sucli cases con- 
sider what military or naval action can be taken by the 
league collectively for the protection of the covenants and 
will afford facilities to members cooperating in this enter- 
prise. 

"Validity of Treaties — All treaties or international 
engagements concluded after the institution of the League 
will be registered with the secretariat and published. 

"The assembly may from time to time advise mem- 
bers to reconsider treaties which have become inappli- 
cable or involve danger of peace. 

"The covenant abrogates all obligations between 
members inconsistent with its terms, but oothing in it 
shall affect the validity of international engagement, Buch 
as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings, like 
the Monroe doctrine, for securing the maintenance of 
peace. 

"The Mandatory System— The tutelage of nations 
not yet able to stand by themselves will be intrusted to 
advanced nations who are best fitted to undertafc 

"The covenant recognizes three different Btages of 
development, requiring different kinds of mandator 



710 WOODROW WILSON 

"Communities like those belonging to the Turkish 
empire, which can be provisionally recognized as inde- 
pendent, subject to advice and assistance from a manda- 
tory in whose selection they would be allowed a voice. 

"Communities like those of Central Africa, to be 
administered by the mandatory, under conditions gen- 
erally approvel by the members of the league, where equal 
opportunities for trade will be allowed to all members; 
certain abuses, such as trade in slaves, arms and liquor, 
will be prohibited, and the construction of military and 
naval bases and the introduction of compulsory military 
training will be disallowed. 

"Other communities, such as Southwest Africa and 
the south Pacific islands, but administered under the laws 
of the mandatory as integral portions of its territory. In 
every case the mandatory will render an annual report, 
and the degree of its authority will be defined. 

"Subject to and in accordance with the provisions of 
international conventions existing, or hereafter to be 
agreed upon, the members of the league will, in general, 
endeavor through the international organization estab- 
lished by the labor convention to secure and maintain fair 
conditions of labor for men, women, and children in their 
own countries and other countries, and undertake to 
secure just treatment of the native inhabitants of terri- 
tories under their control; they will intrust the league 
with the general supervision over the execution of agree- 
ments for the suppression of traffic in women and chil- 
dren, etc. ; and the control of the trade in arms and ammu- 
nition with countries in which control is necessary; they 
will make provision for freedom of communications and 
transit and equitable treatment for commerce of all mem- 
bers of the league, with special reference to the necessi- 
ties of regions devastated during the war ; and they will 
endeavor to take steps for international prevention and 
control of disease. 

1 ' International bureaus and commissions already es- 



WOODROW WILSON 7] 1 

tablished will be placed under the league, as well as those 

to be established in the future. 

| "Amendments to the covenant will take effecl W 
ratified by the council and by a majority of the assembly. 

"Boundaries of Germany— Germany cedes to Pi 
Alsace-Lorraine, 5,600 square miles, it to be south v. 
and to Belgium two small districts between Luxeml 
and Holland totaling 382 square miles. 

"She also cedes to Poland the southeastern ti; 
Silesia, beyond and including Oppeln, most of Poaen, and 
West Prussia, 27,686 square miles, East Prussia being 
isolated from the main body by a part of Poland. 

"She loses sovereignty over the northeasternmosl 
tip of East Prussia, forty square miles north of the river 
Memel, and the internationalized areas aboul Danzig, 729 
square miles, and the basin of the Saar, 738 square miles, 
between the western border of the Rhenish Palatinate of 
Bavaria and the southeast corner of Luxemburg. 

"The Danzig area consists of the A' between the No 
gat and Vistula rivers made by a W by the addition of a 
similar V on the west, including the city of Danzig. 

"The southeastern third of East Prussia and the 
area between East Prussia and the Vistula north of lati 
tude 53 degrees 3 minutes is to have its nationality deter 
mined by popular vote, 5,785 square miles, as is to be the 
case in part of Schleswig, 2,787 square miles. 

Section III 

"Belgium — Germany is to consent to the abrogatii n 
of the treaties of 1839, by which Belgium was established 
as a neutral state, and to agree in advance to any con 
vention with which the allied and associated powera may 
determine to replace them. 

"Germany is to recognize the full sovereignty of Bel 
gium over the contested territory of Morenel and over 
part of Prussian Morenet, and to renounce in favor 
Belgium all rights of the circles of Eupen and Aialmedy, 



712 WOODROW WILSON 

the inhabitants of which are to be entitled, within six 
months, to protest against this change of sovereignty, 
either in whole or in part, the final decision to be reserved 
to the league of nations. 

"A commission is to settle the details of the frontier, 
and various regulations for change of nationality are laid 
down. 

"Luxemburg — Germany renounces her various 
treaties and conventions with the Grand Duchy of Lux- 
emburg, recognizes that it ceased to be a part of the Ger- 
man Zollverein from January 1, last, renounces all right 
of exploitation of the railroads, adheres to the abrogation 
of its neutrality, and accepts in advance any international 
agreement as to it, reached by the allied and associated 
powers. 

"Left Bank of the Rhine — As provided in the mili- 
tary (armistice) clauses, Germany will not maintain any 
fortifications or armed forces less than fifty kilometers 
to the east of the Rhine, hold any maneuvers, nor maintain 
any works to facilitate mobilization. 

"In case of violation, 'she shall be regarded as com- 
mitting a hostile act against the powers who sign the 
present treaty and as intending to disturb the peace of 
the world. ' 

"By virtue of the present treaty, Germany shall be 
bound to respond to any request for an explanation which 
the council of the league of nations may think it necessary 
to address to her. 

"Alsace-Lorraine — After recognition of the moral 
obligation to repair the wrong done in 1871 by Germany 
to France and the people of Alsace-Lorraine, the terri- 
tories ceded to Germany by the treaty of Frankfort are 
restored to France with their frontiers as before 1871, to 
date from the signing of the armistice, and to be free of 
all public debts. 

1 ' Citizenship is regulated by detailed provisions dis- 
tinguishing those who are immediately restored to full 



WOODROW WILSON 71 ; 

French citizenship, those who have to make formal ap] 
cations therefor, and those for whom naturalization is 
open for three years. 

"The last named class includes German residents in 
Alsace-Lorraine, as distinguished from those who acquire 
the position of Alsace-Lorrainers as defined in the treaty. 

"AH public property and all private property of G 
man ex-sovereigns passes to Franco without payment or 
credit, France is substituted for Germany as regards own- 
ership of the railroads and rights over concessions of 
tramways. 

"The Ehine bridges pass to France with the obliga- 
tion for their upkeep. 

"For five years manufactured products of Alfi 
Lorraine will be admitted to Germany free of duty to a 
total amount not exceeding in any year the average of 
the three years preceding the war, and textile materials 
may be imported from Germany to Alsace-Lorraine and 
reexported free of duty. Contracts for electric power 
from the right bank must be continued for ton years. 

"For seven years, with possible extension to ten, 
the ports of Kehae and Strasbourg shall be administo 
as a single unit by a French administrator appointed and 
supervised by the Central Ehine commission. 

"Property rights will be safeguarded in both ]">ri> 
and equality of treatment as respects traffic assured 
nationals, vessels, and goods of every country. 

"Contracts between Alsace-Lorrainoi-; and Germans 
are maintained, except for France's righl to annul on 
grounds of public interest judgments of courts held in 
certain classes of cases, while in others a judicial exequa 
tur is first required. 

"Political condemnations during the war are null 
void and the obligation to repay war line- is established 
as in other parts of allied territory. 

"Various clauses adjust the general provisions oi the 
treaty to the special conditions of Alsace Lorraine, certain 



714 WOODROW WILSON 

matters of execution being left to conventions to be made 
between France and Germany. 

1 'The Saar — In compensation for the destruction of 
coal mines for northern France and as payment on ac- 
count of reparation, Germany cedes to France full owner- 
ship of the coal mines of the Saar basin with their subsid- 
iaries, accessories, and facilities. 

i l The value will be estimated by the reparation com- 
mission and credited against that account. The French 
rights will be governed by German law in force at the 
armistice excepting war legislation, France replacing the 
present owners whom Germany undertakes to indemnify. 
France will continue to furnish the present proportion of 
coal for local needs and contribute in just proportion to 
local taxes. 

"The basin extends from the frontier of Lorraine as 
reannexed to France north as far as St. Wendel, includ- 
ing on the west the valley of the Saar as far as Saarkolz- 
bach and on the east the town of Homburg. 

' ' In order to secure the rights and welfare of the pop- 
pulation and to guarantee to France entire freedom in 
working the mines, the territory will be governed by a 
commission appointed by the league of nations and con- 
sisting of five members, one French, one a native inhab- 
itant of the Saar and three representing three different 
countries other than France and Germany. 

"The league will appoint a member of the commis- 
sion as chairman to act as executive of the commission. 
The commission will have all powers of government for- 
merly belonging to the German empire. 

"Prussia and Bavaria will administer the railroads 
and other public services and have full power to interpret 
the treaty clauses. 

"The local courts will continue, but subject to the 
commission. Existing German legislation will remain the 
basis of the law, but the commission may make modifica- 
tion after consulting a local representative assembly 



WOODROAV WILSON 715 

which it will organize. It will have the taxing power, but 
for local purposes only. New taxes must be approved by 

this assembly. 

"Labor legislation will consider the wishes of the 
local labor organizations and the labor program of the 
league. French and other labor may be freely atilized, 
the former being free to belong to French anions. All 
rights acquired as to pensions and social insurance will 
be maintained by Germany and the Saar commission. 

"There will be no military service, but only a Iced 
gendarmerie to preserve order. 

"The people will preserve their local assemblies, r< 
ligious liberties, schools, and language, but may vote only 
for local assemblies. They will keep their present nation 
ality except so far as individuals may change it. Tl 
wishing to leave will have every facility witli respect to 
their property. 

"The territory will form part of the French cast 
system, with no export tax on coal and metallurgical prod- 
ucts going to Germany nor on German products entering 
the basin, and for five years no import duties on prod 
of the basin going to Germany or Gorman products c 
ing into the basin for local consumption. 

"French money may circulate without restriction. 
After fifteen years a plebiscite will be held by commn 
to ascertain the desires of the population as to contin- 
uance of the existing regime under the league of nations, 
union with France, or union with Germany. The rig] 
vote will belong to all inhabitants over 20 resident therein 
at the signature. 

"Taking into account the opinions thus expres 
the league will decide the ultimate sovereignty. In 
portion restored to Germany the German government 
must buy out the French mines at an appraised valuation. 

"If the price is not paid within six months t 1 
this portion passes finally to Franc... If Germany buys 



716 WOODROW WILSON 

back the mines, the league will determine how much of the 
coal shall be annually sold to France. 

Section IV 

' ' German- Austria — Germany recognizes the total in- 
dependence of German- Austria in the boundaries traced. 
' * Czecho-Slovakia — Germany recognizes the entire 
independence of the Czecho-Slovak state, including the 
autonomous territory of the Euthenians south of the Car- 
pathians, and accepts the frontiers of this state as to be 
determined, which in the case of the German frontier shall 
follow the frontier of Bohemia in 1914. The usual stipu- 
lations as to acquisition and change of nationality follow : 
"Poland — Germany cedes to Poland the greater part 
of upper Silesia, Posen and the province of West Prussia 
on the left bank of the Vistula. A field boundary commis- 
sion of seven — five representing the allied and associated 
powers and one each representing Poland and Germany — 
shall be constituted within fifteen days of the peace to 
delimit this boundary. Such special provisions as are 
necessary to protect racial, linguistic, or religious minor- 
ity and to protect freedom of transit and equitable treat- 
ment of commerce of other nations shall be laid down in a 
subsequent treaty between the five allied and associated 
powers and Poland. 

"East Prussia — The southern and the western fron- 
tier of East Prussia, north and east of Poland is to be 
fixed by plebiscite, the first in the regency of Allenstein 
between the southern frontier of East Prussia and the 
northern frontier of Regierungsbesirk Allenstein, from 
where it meets the boundary between East and West 
Prussia to its junction with the boundary between the 
circles of Oletsko and Augersburg, thence the northern 
boundary of Oletsko to its junction with the present f ron' 
tier, and the second in the area comprising the circles of 
Stuhm and Rosenburg and the parts of the circles oi 
Marienburg and Marienwerder east of the Vistula. 



WOODROW WILSON 717 

"In each case German troops and authorities will 
move out within fifteen days of the peace and the terri 
tories be placed under an international commission of five 
members appointed by the five allied and associated pow- 
ers, with the particular duty of arranging for a free, fair, 
and secret vote. The commission will reporl the results 
of the plebiscites to the five powers with a recommenda- 
tion for the boundary, and will terminate its work as soon 
as the boundary has been laid down and new authorities 
set up. 

"The five allied and associated powers will draw up 
regulations assuring East Prussia full and equitable ac- 
cess to and use of the Vistula. A subsequent convention, 
of which the terms will be fixed by the five allied and asso- 
ciated powers, will be entered into between Poland, Gei 
many, and Danzig, to assure suitable railroad communi- 
cation across German territory on the right bank of the 
Vistula between Poland and Danzig, while Poland shall 
grant free passage from East Prussia to Germany. 

"The northeastern corner of East Prussia, about 
Memel, is to be ceded by Germany to the associated pow- 
ers, the former agreeing to accept the settlement made, 
especially as regards the nationality of the inhabitants. 

"Danzig— Danzig and the district immediately about 
it is to be constituted into the 'free city of Danzig,' under 
the guarantee of the league of nations. A high commis 
sioner, appointed by the league and president, at Danzig 
shall draw up a constitution in agreement with the duly 
appointed representatives of the city, and shall deal in 
the first instance with all differences arising between the 
city and Poland. 

"The actual boundaries of the city shall ho delimited 
by a commission appointed within six months from the 
peace and to include three representatives chosen by the 
allied and associated powers and one each by Germany 
and Poland. 



718 WOODROW WILSON 

' ' A convention, the terms of which shall be fixed by 
the five allied and associated powers, shall be concluded 
between Poland and Danzig, which shall include Danzig 
within the Polish custom frontiers, though a free area in 
the port; insure to Poland the free use of all the city's 
waterways, docks, and other port facilities, the control 
and administration of the Vistula and the whole through 
railway systems within the city and postal, telegraphic, 
and telephonic communication between Poland and Dan- 
zig; provide against discrimination against Poles within 
the city and place its foreign relations and the diplomatic 
protection of its citizens abroad in charge of Poland. 

"Denmark — The frontier between Germany and 
Denmark will be fixed by the self-determination of the 
population. Ten days from the peace German troops and 
authorities shall evacuate the region north of the line run- 
ning from the mouth of the Schlei, south of Kappel, 
Schleswig, and Friedrichstadt, along the Eider to the 
North sea, south of Tonning; the workmen and soldiers' 
councils shall be dissolved ; and the territory administered 
by an international commission of five, of whom Norway 
and Sweden shall be invited to name two. 

"The commission shall insure a free and secret vote 
in three zones. That between the German-Danish fron- 
tier and a line running south of the Island of Alsen, north 
of Flensburg and south of Tondern, to the North sea, 
north of the Island of Sylt, will vote as a unit within three 
weeks after the evacuation. Within five weeks after this 
vote the second zone, whose southern boundary runs from 
the North sea south of the Island of Fehr to the Baltic, 
south of Sygum, will vote by communes. 

"Two weeks after that vote the third zone, running 
to the limit of evacuation, also will vote by communes. 
The international commission will then draw a new fron- 
tier on the basis of these plebiscites and with due regard 
for geographical and economic conditions. Germany will 
renounce all sovereignty over territories north of this line 



WOODROW WILSON 719 

in favor of the associate governments, who will hand them 
over to Denmark. 

"Helgoland— The fortifications, military establish- 
ments, and harbors of the islands of Helgoland and Dune 
are to be destroyed under the supervision of the allies by 
German labor and at Germany's expense. They may not 
be reconstructed for any similar fortification buill in the 
future. 

''Russia— Germany agrees to respect as permanent 
and inalienable the independency of all territories which 
were part of the former Russian empire, to accepl the 
abrogation of the Brest-Litovsk and other treaties en- 
tered into with the Maximalist government of Russia, to 
recognize the full force of all treaties entered into by the 
allied and associated powers with states which were a pari 
of the former Russian empire, and to recognize the fron- 
tiers as determined thereon. 

"The allied and associated powers formally reserve 
the right of Russia to obtain restitution and reparation 
of the principles of the present treaty. 

Section V 

"Outside Europe, Germany renounces all rights, 
titles, and privileges as to her own or her allies' terri 
tories to all the allied and associated powers and under- 
takes to accept whatever measures are taken by the five 
allied powers in relation thereto. 

"Colonies and Overseas Possessions — Germany re 
nounces in favor of the allied and associated powers her 
overseas possessions, with all rights and titles therein. 
All movable and immovable property belonging to the 
German empire or to any German state shall pass to the 
government exercising authority therein. 

"These governments may make whatever provisions 
seem suitable for the repatriation of German actionals 
and as to the conditions on which German Bubjects of 






720 WOODROW WILSON 

European origin shall reside, hold property, or carry on 
business. 

' ' Germany undertakes to pay reparation for damage 
suffered by French nationals in the Cameroons or its 
frontier zone through the acts of German civil and mili- 
tary authorities and of individual Germans from January 
1, 1900, to August 1, 1914. 

' ' Germany renounces all rights under the convention 
of November 4, 1911, and September 29, 1912, and under- 
takes to pay to France in accordance with an estimate 
presented and approved by the repatriation commission 
all deposits, credits, advances, etc., thereby secured. 

1 ' Germany undertakes to accept and observe any pro- 
visions by the allied and associated powers as to the trade 
in arms and spirits in Africa, as well as to the general act 
of Berlin of 1885 and the general act of Brussels of 1890. 
Diplomatic protection to inhabitants of former German 
colonies is to be given by the governments exercising 
authority. 

"China — Germany renounces in favor of China all 
privileges and indemnities resulting from the Boxer 
protocol of 1901, and all buildings, wharves, barracks, 
forts, munitions of warships, wireless plants, and other 
public property except diplomatic or consular establish- 
ments in the German concessions of Tientsin and Hankow 
and in other Chinese territory except Kiau-Chau, and 
agrees to return to China, at its own expense, all the 
astronomical instruments seized in 1901. 

"China will, however, take no measures for disposal 
of German property in the legation quarter at Peking 
without the consent of the powers signatory to the Boxer 
protocol. 

"Germany accepts the abrogation of the concessions 
at Hankow and Tientsin, China agreeing to open them to 
international use. 

' ' Germany renounces all claims against China or any 
allied and associated government for the internment or 



WOODROW WILSON 73] 

repatriation of her citizens in China and for the Beizure 
or liquidation of German interests there since An 
14, 1917. 

"She renounces in favor of Great Britain her Btate 
property in the British concession at Canton and 
France and China jointly of the property of the German 
school in the French concession at Shanghai 

"Siam — Germany recognizes that all agreements be- 
tween herself and Siam, including the right of extra-terri 
toriality ceased July 22, 1917. All German pnblic prop 
erty except consular and diplomatic premises passes with- 
out compensation to Siam, German private property to 
be dealt with in accordance with the economic clans 
Germany waives all claims against Siam for the Beizure 
and condemnation of her ships, liquidation of her prop- 
erty, or internment of her nationals. 

"Liberia — Germany renounces all rights under the 
international arrangements of 1911 and 1912 regarding 
Liberia, more particularly the right to nominal.' a 1 
ceiver of the customs, and disinterest herself in any fur- 
ther negotations for the rehabilitation of Liberia. 

"She regards as abrogated all commercial treaties 
and agreements between herself and Liberia, and recog- 
nizes Liberia's right to determine the status and condi- 
tions of the reestablishment of Germans in Liberia. 

"Morocco — Germany renounces all her rights, titles 
and privileges under the act of Algeciras and the Franco- 
German agreements of 1909 and 1911, and under all 
treaties and arrangements with the Sherifian empire. 

"She undertakes not to intervene in any negotiations 
as to Morocco between France and other powers, accepts 
all the consequences of the French protectorate an- 
nounces the capitulations. The Sherifian governmenl 
shall have complete liberty of action in regard to German 
nationals, and all German protected persons shall be BUD 
ject to the common law. 

"All movable and immovable German property, IS. 



722 WOODROW WILSON 

eluding mining rights, may be sold at public auction, 
the proceeds to be paid to the Sherifian government and 
deducted from the reparation account. Germany is also 
required to relinquish her interests in the state bank of 
Morocco. All Moroccan goods entering Germany shall 
have the same privilege as French goods. 

" Egypt — Germany recognizes the British protecto- 
rate over Egypt declared on December 18, 1014, and re- 
nounces as from August 4, 1914, the capitulation and all 
the treaties, agreements, etc., concluded by her with 
Egypt. She undertakes not to intervene in any negotia- 
tions about Egypt between Great Britain and other pow- 
ers. There are provisions for jurisdiction over German 
nationals and property, and for German consent to any 
changes which may be made in relation to the commission 
of public debt. 

1 ' Germany consents to the transfer to Great Britain 
of the powers given to the late sultan of Turkey for secur- 
ing the free navigation of the Suez canal. 

"Arrangements for property belonging to German 
nationals in Egypt are made similar to those in the case 
of Morocco and other countries. Anglo-Egyptian goods 
entering Germany shall enjoy the same treatment as Brit- 
ish goods. 

"Turkey and Bulgaria — Germany accepts all ar- 
rangements which the allied and associated powers make 
with Turkey and Bulgaria with reference to any right, 
privileges, or interests claimed in those countries by Ger- 
many or her nationals and not dealt with elsewhere. 

"Shantung — Germany cedes to Japan all rights, 
titles, and privileges, notably as to Kiau-Chau and the 
railroads, mines, and cables acquired by her treaty with 
China of March 6, 1897, and other agreements as to Shan- 
tung. 

"All German rights to the railroad from Tsingtao to 
Tsinaufu, including all facilities and mining rights and 
rights of exploitation, pass equally to Japan and the 



WOODROW WILSON 

cables from Tsingtao to Shanghai and Chefoo, the cal 
free of all charges. 

"All German state property, movable and inn 
able, in Kiau-Chau is acquired by Japan free of all 
charges. 

Section VI 

"In order to render possible the initiation of a g 
eral limitation of the armaments of all nations Germany 
undertakes directly to observe the military, naval, and 
air clauses which follow : 

"Military Forces — The demobilization of the Ger- 
man army must take place within two months of thi 
Its strength may not exceed 100,000, including 4,000 offi- 
cers, with not over seven divisions of infantry, and i. 
of cavalry, to be devoted exclusively to maintenance of 
internal order and control of frontiers. Divisions may 
not be grouped under more than two army corps hi 
quarters staffs. 

"The great German general staff is abolished. The 
army administrative service, consisting of civilian }i< r- 
sonnel not included in the number of effectives, is reduced 
to one-tenth the total in the 1913 budget. 

"Employes of the German states such as customs 
officers, first guards and coast guards may not exceed the 
number in 1913. Gendarmes and local police may be in- 
creased only in accordance with the growth of population. 
None of these may be assembled for military training. 

"Armaments— All establishments for the manufac- 
turing, preparation, storage, or design of anna and muni- 
tions of war, except those specifically excepted, mus1 be 
closed within three months of the peace and their person- 
nel dismissed. . . 

"The exact amount of armament and munit] 
lowed Germany is laid down in detail tables, all in ex 
to be surrendered or rendered useless. 

"The manufacture or importation of asphyxiating, 



724 WOODROW WILSON 

poisonous, or other gases and all analogous liquids is for- 
bidden as well as the importation of arms, munitions, and 
war materials. Germany may not manufacture such 
materials for foreign governments. 

"Conscription — Conscription is abolished in Ger- 
many. The enlisted personnel must be maintained by vol- 
untary enlistments for terms of twelve consecutive years, 
the number of discharges before the expiration of that 
term not in any years to exceed 5 per cent of the total 
effectives. 

"Officers remaining in the service must agree to 
serve to the age of 45 years and newly appointed officers 
must agree to serve actively for twenty-five years. 

"No military schools, except those absolutely indis- 
pensable for the units allowed, shall exist in Germany two 
months after the peace. No associations, such as socie- 
ties of discharged soldiers, shooting or touring clubs, edu- 
cational establishments or universities, may occupy them- 
selves with military matters. All measures of mobiliza- 
tion are forbidden. 

"Fortresses — All fortified works, fortresses, and 
field works situated in German territory within a zone 
fifty kilometers east of the Rhine will be dismantled 
within three months. The construction of any new for- 
tifications there is forbidden. The fortified works on the 
southern and eastern frontiers, however, may remain. 

"Control — Interallied commissions of control will 
see to the execution of the provisions, for which a time 
limit is set, the maximum named being three months. 
They may establish headquarters at the German seat of 
government and go to any part of Germany desired. 

' ' Germany must give them complete facilities, pay 
their expenses, and also the expenses of execution of the 
treaty, including the labor and material necessary in 
demolition, destruction, or surrender of war equipment. 

"Naval — The German navy must be demobilized 
within a period of two months after the peace. She will 



WOODROW WILSON 

be allowed six small battleships, six light cruisers, twelve 
destroyers, twelve torpedo boats, and do Bubmaru 
either military or commercial, with a personnel of I'j.uuij 
men, including officers, and no reserve force of any char- 
acter. 

" Conscription is abolished, only voluntary Bervice 
being permitted, with a minimum period of twenty-five 
years' service for officers and twelve for men. No mem- 
ber of the German mercantile marine will be permitted 
any naval training. 

" All German vessels of war in foreign ports and the 
German high sea fleet interned at Scapa Flow, will be 
surrendered, the final disposition of these ships to be de- 
cided upon by the allied and associated powers. Germany 
must surrender forty-two modern destroyers, fifty mod- 
ern torpedo boats and all submarines, with their salvage 
vessels, all Avar vessels under construction, including rab- 
marines, must be broken up. 

"War vessels not otherwise provided for are to be 
placed in reserve or used for commercial purposes. Re- 
placement of ships, except those lost, can take place only 
at the end of twenty years for battleships and fifteen yea ra 
for destroyers. The largest armored ship Germany will 
be permitted will be 10,000 tons. 

"Germany is required to sweep up the mines in the 
North sea and the Baltic sea, as decided upon by the allies. 
All German fortifications in the Baltic defending pass.: 
through the Delts must be demolished. ( Ither coast 
fenses are permitted, but the number and caliber of the 
guns must not be increased. 

"During a period of three months after the peace, 
German high power wireless stations at Nanen, Banover, 
and Berlin will not be permitted to send any □ 
except for commercial purposes and under supervi 
of the allied and associated governments, nor may any 
more be constructed. 

"Germany will be allowed to repair German Bobma- 



726 WOODROW WILSON 

rine cables which have been cut but are not being utilized 
by the allied powers, and also portions of cables which 
after having been cut have been removed, or at any rate 
not being utilized by any one of the allied and associated 
powers. In such cases the cables or portions of cables 
removed or utilized remain the property of allied and 
associated powers, and accordingly fourteen cables or 
parts of cables are specified, which will not be restored to 
Germany. 

"Air — The armed forces of Germany must not in- 
clude any military or naval air forces except for not over 
100 unarmed seaplanes to be retained till October 1 to 
search for submarine mines. No dirigible shall be kept. 

"The entire air personnel is to be demobilized within 
two months, except for 1,000 officers and men retained 
till October. 

"No aviation grounds or dirigible sheds are to be 
allowed within 150 kilometers of the Ehine or the eastern 
or southern frontiers, existing installations within these 
limits to be destroyed. 

"The manufacture of aircraft and parts of aircraft 
is forbidden for six months. All military and naval aero- 
nautical material under a most exhaustive definition must 
be surrendered within three months, except for the 100 
seaplanes already specified. 

"Prisoners of War — The repatriation of German 
prisoners and interned civilians is to be carried out with- 
out delay and at Germany's expense by a commission 
composed of representatives of the allies and Germany. 
Those under sentence for offenses against discipline are 
to be repatriated without regard to the completion of 
their sentence. 

"Until Germany has surrendered persons guilty of 
offenses against the laws and customs of war, the allies 
have the right to retain selected German officers. 

"The allies may deal at their own discretion with 
German nationals who do not desire to be repatriated, all 



WOODROW WIL&o.\ ::: 

repatriation being conditional on the immediate release 

of any allied subjects still in Germany. 

"Germany is to accord facilities to commission 
inquiry in collecting information in regard to missing 
prisoners of war and of imposing penalties on German 
officials who have concealed allied national-. 

"Germany is to restore all property belonging to 
allied prisoners. There is to be a reciprocal exchange of 
information as to dead prisoners and their graves. 

"Graves — Both parties will respect and maintain the 
graves of soldiers and sailors buried on their territories, 
agree to recognize and assist any commission chai 
by any allied or associated government with identifying, 
registering, maintaining, or erecting suitable monum< 
over the graves, and to afford to each other all facilil 
for the repatriation of the remains of their soldiers. 

"Responsibilities — The allied and associated po 1 
publicly arraign William Second of Hohenzollern, for- 
merly German emperor, not for an offense against crim- 
inal law, but for a supreme offense against international 
morali y and the sanctity of treaties. 

"The ex-emperor's surrender is to be requested of 
Holland and a special tribunal set up composed of one 
judge from each of the five great powers. With full guar- 
antees of the right of defense, it is to be guided 'by the 
highest of international policy with a view of vindicating 
the solemn obligations of international undertakings and 
the validity of international morality' and will fix the 
punishment it feels should be imposed. 

"Persons accused of having committed acts in viola- 
tion of the laws and customs of war are t.. be tried and 
punished by military tribunals under military law. If 
the charges affect nationals of one state they will 1... tried 
before a tribunal of that state; if they affect oationalf 
several states, they will be tried before joint tribunals 
of the states concerned. 

"Germany shall hand over to the associated govern 



V728 WOODROW WILSON 

ments, either jointly or severally, all persons so accused 
and all documents and information necessary to insure 
full knowledge of the incriminating acts, the discovery 
of the offenders, and the just appreciation of the respon- 
sibility. 

"The accused will be entitled to name his own 
counsel. 



CHAPTER XLIII 
THE PEACE TREATY (Continued). 

Section VII 

"Reparations — The allied and associated govern 
ments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of 
herself and her allies for causing all the loss and damage 
to which the allied and associated governments and their 
nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war 
imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and 
other allies. 

"While the allied and associated goverimnut < 
recognize that the resources of Germany are not adequate 
after taking into account permanent diminutions of such 
resources which will result from other treaty claim-, to 
make complete reparation for all such loss and damage, 
they require her to make compensation for all damages 
caused to civilians under seven main categories: 

"A — Damage by personal injury to civilians caused 
by acts of war, directly or indirectly, including bombard- 
ments from the air. 

"B — Damage caused to civilians, including exposure 
at sea, resulting from acts of cruelty ordered by the enemy 
and to civilians in the occupied territories. 

"C — Damages caused by maltreatment of prisoners. 

"D — Damages to the allied peoples represented by 
pensions and separation allowances, capitalized at the 
signature of this treaty. 

"E — Damages to property other than naval or mili- 
tary materials. 

<<F — Damages to civilians by being forced to labor. 

"G— Damages in the form of levies or fines imp 
by the enemy. 

729 



730 WOODROW WILSON 

"Germany further binds herself to repay all sums 
borrowed by Belgium from her allies as a result of Ger- 
many's violation of the treaty of 1839 up to November 11, 
1918, and for this purpose will issue at once and hand 
over to the reparation commission 5 per cent goldbonds 
falling due in 1926. 

' ' The total obligations of Germany to pay as denned 
in the category of damages is to be determined and noti- 
fied to her after a fair hearing and not later than May 1, 
1921, by an interallied reparation commission. 

"At the same time a schedule of payments to dis- 
charge the obligation within thirty years shall be pre- 
sented. These payments are subject to postponement in 
certain contingencies. 

"Germany irrevocably recognizes the full authority 
of this commission, agrees to supply it with all the neces- 
sary information and to pass legislation to effectuate its 
findings. She further agrees to restore to the allies cash 
and certain articles which can be identified. 

"As an immediate step toward restoration Germany 
shall pay within two years one thousand million pounds 
sterling ($5,000,000,000), in either gold, goods, ships, or 
other specific forms of payment, this sum being included 
in and not additional to first thousand million bond issue 
referred to below, with the understanding that certain 
expenses, such as those of the armies of occupation and 
payments for food and raw materials, may be deducted 
at the discretion of the allies. 

"In periodically estimating Germany's capacity to 
pay, the reparation commission shall examine the German 
system of taxation, to the end that the sums for repara- 
tion which Germany is required to pay shall become a 
charge upon all her revenues, prior to that for the service 
or discharge of any domestic loan, and secondly, so as to 
satisfy itself that, in general, the German scheme of tax- 
ation is fully as heavy proportionately as that of any of 
the powers represented on the commission. 



WOODROW WILSON 

"The measures which the allied and associated pow- 
ers shall have the right to take, in ease of vohm\ 
default by Germany and which Germany agrees aot to 
regard as acts of war, may include economic and financial 
prohibitions and reprisals and in general snch other m< 
ures as the respective governments may determine t 
necessary in the circumstances. 

"The commission shall consist of one representative 
each of the United States, Great Britain, Franc... Italv, 
and Belgium, a representative of Serbia or Japan taking 
the place of the Belgian representative when the interests 
of either country are particularly affected, with all o\ 
allied powers entitled when their claims are under con- 
sideration to the right of representation without voting 
power. It shall permit Germany to give evidence regard- 
ing her capacity to pay and shall assure a just opportu- 
nity to be heard. 

"It shall make its headquarters at Paris, establish 
its own procedure and personnel, have general control of 
the whole reparation problem, and become the exclusive 
agency of the allies for receiving, upholding, Belling, and 
distributing reparation payments. 

"Majority vote shall prevail except thai unanimity 
is required on questions involving the sovereignty of any 
of the allies, the cancellation of all or part of Germany's 
obligations, the time and manner of selling, distributing, 
and negotiating bonds issued by Germany, any postp 
ment between 1921 and 1926 of annual payments beyond 
1930, and any postponement after 1926 for a period of 
more than three years of the application of a din. rent 
method of measuring damage than in a similar form or 
case and the interpretation of provisions. 

"Withdrawal from representation on the commis- 
sion is permitted upon twelve months' notice. The com- 
mission may require Germany to give from time t«> time, 
by way of guarantee, issues of bonds or other obligations 
to cover such claims as are not otherwise satisfied. 



732 WOODROW WILSON 

1 'In this connection and on account of the total 
amount of claims, bond issues are presently to be required 
of Germany in acknowledgment of its debt as follows : 

"One thousand million pounds sterling ($5,000,000,- 
000) payable not later than May 1, 1921, without interest; 
$10,000,000,000, bearing 2y 2 per cent interest between 
1921 and 1926, and thereafter 5 per cent, with a 1 per cent 
sinking fund payment beginning in 1926, and an under- 
taking to deliver bonds to an additional amount of $10,- 
000,000,000, bearing interest at 5 per cent. 

"Under terms to be fixed by the commission, interest 
on Germany's debt will be 5 per cent, unless otherwise 
determined by the commission in the future, and pay- 
ments that are not made in gold may be accepted by the 
commission in the form of properties, commodities, busi- 
nesses, rights, concessions, etc. 

"Certificates of beneficial interest, representing 
either bonds or goods delivered by Germany may be is- 
sued by the commission to the interested powers. As 
bonds are distributed and pass from the control of the 
commission an amount of Germany's debt equivalent to 
their par value is to be considered as liquidated. 

"Shipping — The German government recognizes the 
right of the allies to the replacement, ton for ton and 
class for class, of all merchant ships and fishing boats lost 
or damaged owing to the war, and agrees to cede to the 
allies all German merchant ships of 1,600 tons gross and 
upwards, one-half of her ships between 1,000 and 1,600 
tons gross, and one-quarter of her steam trawlers and 
other fishing boats. These ships are to be delivered 
within two months to the reparation commission, together 
with documents of title evidencing the transfer of the 
ships from incumbrance. 

" 'As an additional part of reparation* the Germau 
government further agrees to build merchant ships for 
the account of the allies to the amount of not exceeding 
200,000 tons gross annually during the next five years. 



WOODROW WILSON 

"All ships used for inland navigation taken by 1 1 
many from the allies are to be restored within two months, 
the amount of loss not covered by snob restitution to be 
made up by the cession of the German river fleet ap to 

20 per cent thereof. 

Section VIII 

"Devastated Areas — Germany undertakes to d> 
her economic resources directly to the physical restora 
tion of the invaded areas. The reparation commission Lb 
authorized to require Germany to replace the destroyed 
articles by the delivery of animals, machinery, etc, 
isting in Germany and to manufacture materials required 
for reconstruction purposes, with due consideration for 
Germany's essential domestic requirements. 

"Coal, Etc. — Germany is to deliver annually for ten 
years to France coal equivalent to the difference between 
annual pre-war output of Nord and Pas de Calais n 
and annual production during above ten years. Germany, 
further, gives options over ten years for delivery of 
7,000,000 tons coal per year to France, in addition to the 
above; of 8,000,000 tons to Belgium, and of an amounl 
ing from 4,500,000 tons in 1919 to 1920 to 8,500,000 tons in 
1923 to 1924 to Italy at prices to be fixed as prescribed in 
the treaty. Coke may be taken in place of coal in ration 
of three tons to four. Provision is also made for deliv 
ery to France over three years of benzol, coal tar, an. 1 Bui 
phate of ammonia. The commission has powers to ] 
pone or annul the above deliveries should they interfere 
unduly with industrial requirements of Germany. 

"Dyestuffs— Germany accords option to the commifl 
sion on dyestuffs and chemical drugs, including quinine, 
up to 50 per cent of total stock in Germany at the time the 
treaty comes in force and similar options during eacl 
months to end of 1924 and up to 25 per cenl oi previous 
six months' output. 

"Cables— Germany renounces all title to Bpeoineo 



734 WOODROW WILSON 

cables, value of such as were privately owned being cred- 
ited to her against reparation indebtedness. 

' ' Special Provisions — As reparation for the descrip- 
tion of the library of Louvain, Germany is to hand over 
manuscripts, early printed books, prints, etc., to be equiv- 
alent to those destroyed. 

' 'In addition to the above Germany is to hand over 
to Belgium wings now at Berlin belonging to the altar 
piece of the 'Adoration of the Lamb,' by Hubert and Jan 
Van Eyck, the center of which is now in the church of St. 
Bavo at Ghent, and the wings now at Berlin and Munich, 
of the altar piece of 'Last Supper,' by Dirk Bouts, the 
center of which belongs to the church of St. Peter at 
Louvain. 

' ' Germany is to restore within six months the koran 
of the Caliph Othman, formerly at Medina to the king of 
the Hedjaz I., and the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa, for- 
merly in German East Africa to his Brittanic majesty's 
government. 

Section IX 

"Finance — Powers to which German territory is 
ceded will assume a certain amount of the German pre- 
war debt, the amount to be fixed by the reparations com- 
mission on the basis of the ratio between the revenue and 
of the ceded territory and Germany's total revenues for 
the three years preceding the war. 

"In view, however, of the special circumstances un- 
der which Alsace-Lorraine was separated from France 
in 1871, when Germany refused to accept any part of the 
French public debt, France will not assume any part of 
Germany's pre-war debt there, nor will Poland share in 
certain German debts incurred for the oppression of 
Poland. 

"If the value of the German public property in ceded 
territory exceeds the amount of debt assumed, the states 



WOODROW WILSON 

to which property is ceded give credit on reparation for 
the excess, with the exception of Alsace Lorraine. 

"Mandatory powers will not assume any German 
debts or give any credit for German government property. 

"Germany renounces all right of representation on, 
or control of, state banks, commission, or other similar 
international financial and economic organizatioi 

"Germany is required to pay the total cost of the 
armies of occupation from the date of the armistice 
long as they are maintained in German territory, this 
cost to be a first charge on her resources. The cost "t' 
reparation is the next charge, after making Buch provi- 
sions for payments for imports as the allies may deem 
necessary. 

"Germany is to deliver to the allied and associated 
powers all sums deposited in Germany by Turkey and 
Austria-Hungary in connection with the financial Bup] 
extended by her to them during the war, and to tran 
to the allies all claims against Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, 
or Turkey in connection with agreements made during 
the war. 

"Germany confirms the renunciation of the treaties 
of Bucharest and Brest-Litovsk. 

"On the request of the reparations commission, Ger- 
many will expropriate any right, rights, or interests of 
her nationals in public utilities in ceded territories or 
those administered by mandatories, and in Turkey, China, 
Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, and trai 
them to the reparations commission, which will credit her 
with their value. 

"Germany guarantees to repay to Brazil the fund 
arising from the sale of Sao Paulo coffee which she 
refused to allow Brazil to withdraw from Germany. 

Section X 
"Customs— For a period of six months Germany 
shall impose no tariff duties higher than the loweal in 



736 WOODROW WILSON 

force in 1914, and for certain agricultural products, wines, 
vegetables, oils, artificial silk, and washed or scoured 
wool this restriction obtains for two and a half years, or 
for five years unless further extended by the league of 
nations. 

"Germany must give most favored nation treatment 
to the allied and associated powers. She shall impose no 
customs tariff for five years on goods originating in 
Alsace-Lorraine and for three years on goods origi- 
nating in former German territory ceded to Poland 
with the right of observation of a similar exception for 
Luxemburg. 

' ' Shipping — Ships of the allied and associated powers 
shall for five years, and thereafter under condition of 
reciprocity, unless the league of nations otherwise decides, 
enjoy the same rights in German ports as German vessels 
and have most favored nation treatment in fishing, coast- 
ing trade, and towage even in territorial waters. Ships 
of a country having no sea coast may be registered at 
some one place within its territory. 

"Unfair Competition — Germany undertakes to give 
the trade of the allied and associated powers adequate 
safeguards against unfair competition and in particular 
to suppress the use of false wrappings and markings and 
on condition of reciprocity to respect the laws and judicial 
decisions of allied and associated states, in respect of 
regional appellations of wines and spirits. 

"Treatment of Nationals — Germany shall impose no 
exceptional taxes or restriction upon the nationals of the 
allied and associated states for a period of five years and 
unless the league of nations acts for an additional five 
years. German nationality shall not continue to attach 
to a person who has become a national of an allied or 
associated state. 

"Conventions — Some forty multilateral conventions 
are renewed between Germany and the allied and asso- 



WOODROW WILSON 

ciated powers, but special conditions are attached to 1 1 
many's readmission to several. 

"As to postal and telegraphic conventions Germany 
must not refuse to make reciprocal agreements with the 
new states. She must agree as respects the radiotele 
graphic convention to provisional rules to be comma 
nicated to it and adheres to the new convention when 
formulated. 

"In the North Sea fisheries and North Sea liquor 
traffic convention, rights of inspection and police over 
associated fishing boats shall be exercise, 1 for at leasl five 
years only by vessels of these powers. As to the inter 
national railway union Germany shall adhere to the nev< 
convention when formulated. 

"As to the Chinese customs tariff arrangement, the 
arrangement of 1905 regarding Whangpoo and the Boxer 
indemnity of 1901; France, Portugal, and Roumania, as 
to The Hague convention of 1903 relating to civil pro- 
cedure; and Great Britain and the United States, as to 
article 3 of the Samoan treaty of 1899, are relieved of all 
obligation toward Germany. 

"Each allied and associated state may renew any 
treaty with Germany insofar as consistent with the peace 
treaty by giving notice within six months. Treaties en- 
tered into by Germany since August 1, 1914, with other 
enemy states and before or since that date with Roumania, 
Russia, and governments representing parts of Russia 
are abrogated and any concession granted under pressure 
by Eussia to German subjects annulled. 

"The allied and associated states arc to enjoy I 
favored nation treatment under treaties entered into bj 
Germany and other enemy states before August 1. L914, 
and under treaties entered into by Germany and neutral 
states during the war. 

"Pre- War Debts— A system of clearing houses is to 
be created within three months, one in Germany and 
in each allied and associated states which adopts the plan 



738 WOODROW WILSON 

for the payment of pre-war debts, including those arising 
from contracts suspended by the war, for the adjustment 
of the proceeds of the liquidation of enemy property and 
the settlement of other obligations. 

"Each participating state assumes responsibility for 
the payment of all debts owing by its nationals to 
nationals of the enemy states except in cases of pre-war 
insolvency of the debtor. 

"The proceeds of the sale of private enemy property 
in each participating state may be used to pay the debts 
owed to the nationals of that state, direct payment from 
debtor to creditor and all communications relating thereto 
being prohibited. 

' ' Disputes may be settled by arbitration by the courts 
of the debtor country or by the mixed arbitral tribunal. 
Any ally or associated power may, however, decline to 
participate in this system by giving Germany six months ' 
notice. 

"Enemy Property — Germany shall restore or pay 
for all private enemy property seized or damaged by her, 
the amount of damages to be fixed by the mixed arbitral 
tribunal. The allied and associated states may liquidate 
German private property within their territories as com- 
pensation for property of their nationals not restored or 
paid for by Germany, for debts owed to their nationals by 
German nationals, and for other claims against Germany. 

"Germany is to compensate its nationals for such 
losses and to deliver within six months all documents 
relating to property held by its nationals in allied and 
associated states. 

"All war legislation as to enemy property rights and 
interests is confirmed and all claims by Germany against 
the allied or associated governments for acts under excep- 
tional war measures abandoned. 

"Contracts — Pre-war contracts between allied and 
associated nationals, excepting the United States, Japan, 
and Brazil, and German nationals are cancelled, except 



WOODROW WILSON 

for debts for accounts already performed, agreemi : 
the transfer of property where the property had alrea 
passed, leases of land and houses, contracts of mortg, 
pledge of lien, mining concessions, contracts with 
ments, and insurance contracts. 

''Mixed arbitral tribunals shall be established, of 
three members, one chosen by Germany, cue by tl 
ciated states, and the third by agreement, or, failing 
which, by the president of Switzerland. They shall have 
jurisdiction over all disputes as to contracts concluded 
before the present peace treaty. 

"Fire insurance contracts are not considered dis- 
solved by the war, even if premiums Lave noi been paid, 
but lapse at the date of the first annual premium falling 
due three months after the peace. 

"Life insurance contracts may be restored by \ 
ments of accumulated premiums with interest, sum> fall- 
ing due on such contracts during the war to be recoverable 
with interest. Marine insurance contracts arc dissolved 
by the outbreak of war, except where the risk insured 
against had already been incurred. 

"Where the risk had not attached, premiums paid 
are recoverable; otherwise, premiums due and sums due 
on losses are recoverable. Reinsurance treaties are abro- 
gated unless invasion had made it impossible for the 
reinsured to find another reinsure]-. 

"Any allied or associated power, however, may can- 
cel all the contracts running between its nations and a 
German life insurance company, the latter b bag obli- 
gated to hand over the proportion of itfi attributable 
to such policies. 

"Industrial Property— Rights as to industrial, lit 
erary and artistic property are reestablished, the Bpecial 
war measures of the allied and associated poi 
ratified and the right reserved to impose conditions on the 
use of German patents and copyrights when in the pub- 
lic interest. Except as between the United and 



740 WOODROW WILSON 

Germany, pre-war licenses and rights to sue for infringe- 
ments committed during the war are cancelled. 

1 ' Opium — The contracting powers agree, whether or 
not they have signed and ratified the opium convention 
of January 23, 1912, or signed the special protocol opened 
at The Hague in accordance with resolutions adopted by 
the third opium conference in 1914, to bring the said con- 
vention into force by enacting within twelve months of 
the peace the necessary legislation. 

"Religious Missions — The allied and associated 
powers agree that the properties of religious missions in 
territories belonging or ceded to them shall continue in 
their work under the control of the powers, Germany 
renouncing all claims in their behalf. 

Section XI 

"Aerial Navigation — Aircraft of the allied and asso- 
ciated powers shall have full liberty of passage and land- 
ing over and in German territory, equal treatment with 
German planes as to use of German airdromes, and with 
most favored nation planes as to internal commercial 
traffic in Germany. 

"Germany agrees to accept allied certificates of na- 
tionality, airworthiness or competency or licenses and to 
apply the convention relative to aerial navigation con- 
cluded between the allied and associated powers to her 
own aircraft over her own territory. These rules apply 
until 1923 unless Germany has since been admitted to the 
league of nations or to the above convention. 

"Freedom of Transit — Germany must grant freedom 
of transit through her territories by rail or water to per- 
sons, goods, ships, carriages, and mails from or to any of 
the allied or associated powers, without customs or transit 
duties, undue delays, restrictions, or discriminations 
based on nationality, means of transport, or place of 
entry or departure. 



WOODROW WILSON 711 

"Goods in transit shall be assured all possible Bpeed 
of journey, especially perishable goods. 

"Germany may not divert traffic from its normal 
course in favor of her own transport routes or maintain 
'control stations' in connection with transmigration traf- 
fic. She may not establish any tax dUscrimination 
against the ports of allied or associated powers; musl 
grant the latter's seaports all factors and reduced tariffs 
granted her own or other nationals, and afford the allied 
and associated powers equal rights with those of her own 
nationals in her ports and waterways, save thai shi 
free to open or close her maritime coasting trade. 

"Free Zones in Ports — Free zones existing in Ger 
man ports on August 1, 1914, must be maintained with 
due facilities as to warehouses and packing, without dis- 
crimination and without charges except for expenses of 
administration and use. Goods leaving the free zones for 
consumption in Germany and goods brought into the free 
zones from Germany shall be subject to the ordinary 
import and export taxes. 

Section XII 

"International Rivers— The Elbe from the junction 
of the Vltava, the Vltava from Prague, the Oder from 
Oppa, the Niemen from Grodno, and the Danube from 
Ulm are declared international, together with their con 
nections. The riparian states must ensure good condi 
tions of navigation within their territories unless a 
cial organization exists therefor. Otherwise appeal may 
be had to a special tribunal of the league of nations, v- bich 
also may arrange for a general international water* 
convention. 

"The Elbe and the Oder are to be placed under inter 
national commissions to meet within three months, I 
for the Elbe composed of four representatives <>l < 
many two from Czechoslovakia, and one each from 
Great' Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, and that for 



742 WOODROW WILSON 

the Oder composed of one each from Poland, Russia, 
Czecho-Slovakia, Great Britain, France, Denmark, and 
Sweden. 

"If any riparian state on the Niemen should so re- 
quest of the league of nations a similar commission shall 
be established there. These commissions shall, upon 
request of any riparian state, meet within three months 
to revise existing international agreement. 

"The Danube — The European Danube commission 
reassumes its pre-war powers, for the time being, with 
representatives of only Great Britain, Italy, and Rouma- 
nia. The upper Danube is to be administered by a new 
international commission until a definitive state be drawn 
up at a conference of the powers nominated by the allied 
and associated governments within one year after the 
peace. 

1 ' The enemy governments shall make full reparations 
for all war damages caused to the European commission ; 
shall cede their river facilities in surrendered territory, 
and give Czecho-Slovakia, Serbia, and Roumania any 
rights necessary on their shores for carrying out improve- 
ments in navigation. 

"Rhine and Moselle — The Rhine is placed under the 
central commission to meet at Strasbourg within six 
months after the peace and to be composed of four rep- 
resentatives of France, which shall in addition select the 
president ; four of Germany, and two each of Great Brit- 
ain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. 

"Germany must give France on the course of the 
Rhine included between the two extreme points of her 
frontiers all rights to take water to feed canals, while 
herself agreeing not to make canals on the right bank 
opposite France. She must also hand over to France all 
her drafts and designs for this part of the river. 

"Belgium is to be permitted to build a deep draft 
Rhine-Meuse canal if she so desires within twenty-five 
years, in which case Germany must construct the part 



WOODROW WILSON 

within her territory on plans drawn by Belgium; sim- 
ilarly, the interested allied governments may construcl 
a Rhine-Meuse canal, both, if constructed, to come m 
the competent international commission. 

"Germany may not object if the central Rhine com- 
mission desires to extend its jurisdiction over the 1< 
Moselle, the upper Rhine, or lateral canals. 

"Germany must cede to the allied and associated 
governments certain tugs, vessels, and facilities for aavi 
gation on all these rivers, the specific details to he estab 
lished by an arbiter named by the United States. Ded 
sion will be based on the legitimate needs of the parties 
concerned and on the shipping traffic during the five years 
before the war. The value will be included in the regular 
reparation account. In the case of the Rhine shares in 
the German navigation companies and property Buch as 
wharves and warehouses held by Germany in Rotterdam 
at the outbreak of war must be handed over. 

"Railways — Germany, in addition to most favored 
nation treatment on her railways, agrees to cooperate 
in the establishment of through ticket services for : 
sengers and baggage; to ensure communication by rail 
between the allied, associated and other Btates; to allow 
the construction or improvement within twenty live years 
of such lines as necessary, and to conform her rolling 
stock to enable its incorporation in trains of the allied or 
associated powers. 

"She also agrees to accept the denunciation of the 
St. Gothard convention if Switzerland and Italy bo re- 
quest, and temporarily to execute instructions as to the 
transport of troops and supplies and the establishment of 
postal and telegraphic service, as provided. 

" Czecho-Slovakia— To assure Czecho Slovakia m 
cess to the sea, special rights are given her both north and 
south. Towards the Adriatic, she is permitted to run her 
own through trains to Fiume and Trieste. To the north. 
Germany is to lease her for ninety-nine years Bpaoet in 



744 WOODROW WILSON 

Hamburg and Stettin, the details to be worked out by a 
commission of three representing Czecho-Slovakia, Ger- 
many, and Great Britain. 

"The Kiel Canal — The Kiel canal is to remain free 
and open to war and merchant ships of all nations at peace 
with Germany. Goods and ships of all states are to be 
treated on terms of absolute equality, and no taxes to be 
imposed beyond those necessary for upkeep and improve- 
ment for which Germany is responsible. 

"In case of violation of or disagreement as to these 
provisions, any state may appeal to the league of nations 
and may demand the appointment of an international 
commission. For preliminary hearing of complaints Ger- 
many shall establish a local authority at Kiel. 

Section XIII 

"Members of the league of nations agree to estab- 
lish a permanent organization to promote international 
adjustment of labor conditions, to consist of an annual 
international labor conference and an international labor 
office. 

"The former is composed of four representatives of 
each state, two from the government and one each from 
the employers and the employed ; each of them may vote 
individually. It will be a deliberative, legislative body, 
its measures taking the form of draft conventions or 
recommendations for legislation, which, if passed by two- 
thirds vote, must be submitted to the law-making author- 
ity in every state participating. 

"Each government may either enact the terms into 
law; approve the principle, but modify them to local 
needs; leave the actual legislation, in case of a federal 
state, to local legislatures ; or reject the convention alto- 
gether, without further obligation. 

"The international labor office is established at the 
seat of the league of nations, as part of its organization. 
It is to collect and distribute information on labor 



WOODROW WILSON 

throughout the world and prepare agenda for the oon 
ference. It will publish a periodical in French and I ! 
lish, and possibly other languages. 

"Each state agrees to make to it, for presentation 
to the conference, an annual reporl of measures taken 
to execute accepted conventions; the governing body is 
its executive. It consists of twenty-fonr members, twelve 
representing the governments, six the employers, and >i\ 
the employes, to serve for three years. 

"On complaint that any government has failed to 
carry out a convention to which it is a party, the govern 
ing body may make inquiries directly to thai government, 
and, in case the reply is unsatisfactory, may publish t la- 
complaint with comment. 

"A complaint by one government against another 
may be referred by the governing body to a commission 
of inquiry nominated by the secretary general of the 
league. 

"If the commission report fails to bring satisfactory 
action, the matter may be taken to a permanent conrl of 
international justice for final decision. The chief reliance 
for securing enforcement of the law will be publicity, with 
a possibility of economic action in the background. 

"The first meeting of the conference will take place 
in October, 1919, at Washington, to discuss the eight hour 
day, or forty-eight hour week; prevention of unemploy 
ment; extension and application of the international con 
ventions adopted at Berne in 1906, prohibiting nighl work 
for women and the use of white phosphorus in the mann 
facture of matches; and employment of women and chil- 
dren at night or in unhealthy work, of women before and 
after childbirth, including maternity benefit, and of chil- 
dren as regards minimum age. 

"Nine principles of labor conditions we recognize 
the ground that 'the well being, physical and moral, of 
the industrial wage earners is of BUpreme international 
importance.' With exceptions necessitated by difl 



746 WOODROW WILSON 

of climate, habits, and economic development, they in- 
clude: The guiding principle that labor should not be 
regarded merely as a commodity or article of commerce ; 
right of association of employers and employes; a wage 
adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life; the 
eight hour day, or forty-eight hour week; a weekly rest 
of at least twenty-four hours, which should include Sun- 
day wherever practicable; abolition of child labor and 
assurance of the continuation of the education and proper 
physical development of children; equal pay for equal 
work as between men and women; equitable treatment 
of all workers lawfully resident therein, including for- 
eigners, and a system of inspection in which women should 
take part. 

Section XIV 

" Guarantees — Western Europe as a guarantee for 
the execution of the treaty; German territory to the west 
of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads, will be occu- 
pied by allied and associated troops for fifteen years. 

"If the conditions are faithfully carried out by Ger- 
many certain districts, including the bridgehead of Co- 
logne, will be evacuated at the expiration of five years; 
certain other districts, including the bridgehead of Cob- 
lenz, and the territories nearest the Belgian frontier, will 
be evacuated after ten years, and the rmainder, including 
the bridgehead of Mainz, will be evacuated after fifteen 
years. 

"In case the interallied reparation commission finds 
that Germany has failed to observe the whole or part of 
her obligations, either during the occupation or after the 
fifteen years have expired, the whole or part of the areas 
specified will be reoccupied immediately. If before the 
expiration of the fifteen years Germany complies with all 
the treaty undertakings, the occupying forces will be 
withdrawn immediately. 

"Eastern Europe — All German troops at present in 



WOODROW WILSON 7 17 

territories to the east of the n.w frontier shall retnn 
soon as the allied and associated governments deem v. 
They are to abstain from all requisitions and are in do 
way to interfere with measures for national defense taken 

by the government concerned. 

"All questions regarding occupation nol provided for 

by the treaty will be regulated by a subsequent eonv 

tion or conventions which will have similar foi 
effect. 

Section XV 

" Miscellaneous — Germany agrees to recognize 
full validity of the treaties of peace and additional i 
ventions to be concluded by the allied and associated 
powers with the powers allied with Germany; to ag 
to the decisions to be taken as to the territories of Austria- 
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and to recognize the new 
states in the frontiers to be fixed for them. 

"Germany agrees not to put forward any pecuniary 
claims against any allied or associated power signing tin- 
present treaty based on events previous to the coming 
into force of the treaty. 

"Germany accepts all decrees as to German ships 
and goods made by any allied or associated prize court 
The allies reserve the right to examine all decisions of 
German prize courts. The present treaty, of which the 
French and British texts are botli authentic, shall be 
ratified and the depositions of ratifications made in Paris 
as soon as possible. The treaty is to become effective in 
all respects for each power on the date of depositioi 
its ratification.'" 



CHAPTER XLIV 
GERMANY CRUSHED. 

The German people were stricken dumb when the 
terms of peace were announced. It was apparent they 
had planned on escaping the just punishment that was 
due the nation and its rulers. For that reason the effect 
was more terrible. 

An official proclamation was issued by the provis- 
ional government as follows : 

"In deep distress and weighed down by cares, the 
German people have waited through the months of the 
armistice for the peace conditions. Their publication 
has brought the bitterest disappointment and unspeak- 
able grief to the entire people. A public expression 
ought to be given these feelings by all Germans. 

"The imperial government requests that the free 
states have public amusement suspended for a week and 
allow in the theaters only such productions as correspond 
to the seriousness of these grievous days." 

After a five hour session of the German cabinet, 
Philip Scheidemann, the chancellor, delivered a speech 
to the committee appointed to consider the treaty. After 
comparing the most important conditions laid down by the 
allies in connection with President Wilson's fourteen 
points, Scheidemann said : 

"These conditions are nothing else than death for 
Germany, but the government must discuss this document 
of hatred and madness with sobriety." 

The chancellor said the German delegation at Ver- 
sailles had been instructed to hand a note to the allies 
showing the difference between the treaty terms and 
President Wilson's fourteen points and submit counter 

748 



WOODROW WILSON 

proposals and endeavor to start an oral discussion He 
expressed the hope that the peace conditions would 
considered with good will by both parties and that a E I 
isfactory result would be reached. 

The Vossiche Zeitung estimated thai the indemnity 
would total $45,000,000,000 gold, and complained that tin- 
entente had not taken into account the war material and 
the navy delivered up. The writer declared that a Bmaller 
and weaker Germany would be unable to pi 

The parliamentary leaders of all factions who v 
in Berlin to attend committee meetings, admitted they 
were stunned by the severity of the proposed peace terms. 
Beyond casual comment, however, they declined to 
cuss the entente's conditions or details or to forecast the 
assembly's probable attitude. 

States, municipalities, districts, organizations of 
various sorts, business men's and women's clubs, and tie' 
political parties through their spokesmen vied with each 
other in finding words in which to express scorn and con- 
demnation for the document. 

For perhaps the first time in history all the German 
parties were united in opinion, each of them assailing the 
terms Germany was asked to sign, for the body of the inde 
pendent Socialist party did not appear to agree wit] 
organ, Die Freiheit, that Germany should Bign the p< 
on the terms presented. 

The newspapers were utterly Bwamped with the pro- 
tests, being able to print but a fraction of them They 
were urged to this by the Tageblatt, which said the on 
friendly attitude towards the treaty taken by the Social 
ists of other countries would not be of assistance, 
they were in the minority in their countries and tie- ft r- 
mans must protest for themselves. 

The government was overwhelmed with telegrams 
which it was unable to answer save by public announce- 
ment of its gratitude. 



750 WOODROW WILSON 

Maximilian Harden, editor of the Berlin Die Zu- 
kunf t, writing on the peace treaty, said : 

"The peace conditions are not harder than I ex- 
pected. They were unpleasant to the greater part of 
the people. But could one really have expected them 
otherwise ? 

1 1 The Germans have not given very convincing mental 
guarantees during the six months since the revolution that 
they have changed their system ; on the contrary, the pres- 
ent government and the press have used the same methods 
of incitement, the same tricks of bluff, as under the old 
rule of the petty nobility. 

"The government's proclamations are only bad 
copies of the kaiser's time. The whole press resounds in 
protests and has started a campaign of incitement against 
the allies, couched in violent language. It is agitating 
for refusal to sign the treaty, and to what use 1 All must 
know that the allies, by keeping up the blockade and oc- 
cupying the coal districts, can force Germany to sign 
whatever they want. 

"The allies have been threatened that Germany 
would join the bolsheviki. But that would be suicidal. 
The only way to rescue the country is by openness and 
honesty. The revolution has been a great disappoint- 
ment. 

' ' Germany should have sent men who would have laid 
their cards on the table and got the allies to understand 
that some of the conditions were unacceptable. 

"If Germany showed its good will to do what is in 
its power to comply with the allies' requests, the allies 
would see that conditions were changed in favor of Ger- 
many, because they know there must be a Germany and 
that it is impossible to destroy the German people." 

The first interchange of notes on the peace treaty 
took place on May 9th. The first official note from the 
German contingent protested against the rigorous terms 
laid down in the document. It follows : 



WOODROW WILSON 751 

"The German peace delegation has finished the first 

perusal of the peace conditions which have been handed 
over to them. They have had to realize that, on 
tial points, the basis of the peace of right agreed npon 
between the belligerents has been abandoned. 

"They were not prepared to find that tin- promi 
explicitly given to the German people and the whole of 
mankind, is in this way to be made illusory, 

"The draft of the treaty contains demands which n<> 
nation could endure. Moreover, our experts hold that 
many of them could not possibly be carried out 

"The German peace delegation will substantiate 
these statements in detail and transmit to the allied and 
associated governments their observations and their ma- 
terial continuously. 

"BROCKDORFF-RANTZAU ■ 

To this letter the following reply was made by the 
allies and associated powers : 

"The representatives of the allied and associated 
powers have received the statement of objections of the 
German plenipotentiaries to the draft conditions of p 

"In reply they wish to remind the German delegation 
that they have formulated the terms of the treaty with 
constant thought of the principles on which the armistice 
and the negotiations for peace were proposed. '1 !■■■> 
admit no discussion of their right to insist on tl 
of the peace substantially as drafted. They can consider 
only such practical suggestions as the German plempo 
tentiaries may have to submit. ' ' 

The second letter from the German represents 

"The German peace delegation has the honor 
nounce its attitude on the question of the league ..i na- 
tions by herewith transmitting a German program, which 
in the opinion of the delegation, contains important 
gestions on the league of nations problem. 



752 WOODROW WILSON 

' ' The German peace delegation reserves for itself the 
liberty of stating its opinions on the draft of the allied 
and associated governments in detail. In the meantime it 
begs to call attention to the discrepancy lying in the 
fact that Germany is called on to sign the statute of the 
league of nations as an inherent part of the treaty draft 
handed to us, and, on the other hand, is not mentioned 
among the states which are invited to join the league of 
nations. 

"The German peace delegation begs to inquire 
whether and, if so, under what circumstances, such invi- 
tation is intended. 

1 ' BROCKDORFF-RANTZAU. ' ' 

The reply of the allies to this is as follows : 

"The receipt of the German program of the league 
of nations is acknowledged. The program will be re- 
ferred to the appropriate committee of the allied and as- 
sociated powers. 

"The German plenipotentiaries will find, on reex- 
amination of the covenant of the league of nations, that 
the matter of the admission of additional member states 
has not been overlooked, but is explicitly provided for in 
the second paragraph of article 1. ' ' 

[Article 1, paragraph 3, of the league of nations cove- 
nant says: "Any fully self-governing state, dominion, 
or colony not named in the annex may become a member 
of the league if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds 
of the assembly, provided that it shall give effective guar- 
antees of its sincere intention to observe international 
obligations and shall accept such regulations as may be 
prescribed by the league in regard to its military and 
naval forces and armaments. "] 

It was announced that President Wilson would per- 
sonally direct such answers as might be decided upon con- 
cerning German inquiries on the peace treaty differing 
from the president 's fourteen points. 



WOOPR<T\V WILSON 

The President announced on May 11th that he would 
remain in Paris to affix his signature to the peace treat) 
in case the Germans decided to accept the diet the 

Allies and associated powers. 

The Committee of the Big Four convened again 
May 12th and, at the insistence of President Wilson, be 
gan drawing up the treaty to be submitted to the A 
trian envoys. Many of the points in the document v 
identical with those handed Germany and caused L r h>om 
in Vienna, which expressed its opinion by referring to tie- 
German treaty as ''severe." 

The Austrian envoys arrived in Paris en May 14th 
and were taken to the suburb of St. Germain en Laye, 
where they were housed in a hotel. They were net 
stricted as were the German delegates, but were permitted 
to walk the streets at will. There was no expression of 
hostility toward them on the part of the to\vn<] i. n],l,-. ] 

Austrians were told on their arrival that they would 
be permitted to communicate with the German emi 
and announced that they li ad no intention of doing 

German-indignation against the treaty grew Bteadily. 
On May 12th President Ebert termed it a "im 
document." There were public demonstrations in Berlin, 
Breslau, Konigsburg, Danzig, Cassel and Bochum under 
the auspices of the National People's party, to all of which 
the Committee of the Big Four paid not theslightesl 1. 
The International Socialists' organization tor- 
treaty unjust. This amused the American delegate 
the conference when the part the Socialists played in the 
war was recalled. 

A clash almost occurred in the occupied i 
the order of the German government for a w* urn 

ing It happened in a hotel .lining mom 
where several American officers were present 
orchestra began playing a German policeman entered 
ordered it stopped. The American officers ord< 
orchestra to proceed and silenced the ohjectioni 



754 WOODROW WILSON 

policeman with the remark that Coblentz was bona fide 
American territory and not subject to orders from the 
Berlin government. 

One of the demands that created great indignation in 
Germany was the one concerning the restoration of cattle 
to Belgium and northern France. The spokesmen declared 
that the Allies were endeavoring to starve the German 
children by depriving them of milk. Although the cattle 
were to replace those seized by the Germany army in the 
invaded sections, and the removal of which had caused 
the death of thousands of French and Belgium children, 
the Germans refused to concede that the Allies were en- 
titled to the cattle. Their attitude brought caustic com- 
ments from the French press, which referred to the pro- 
tests as " comical.' ' 

On May 14th Chancellor Scheidemann referred to the 
treaty as ''unacceptable, dreadful and murderous." He 
declared it would make of Germany a vast prison with 
60,000,000 inmates. He followed up this declaration with 
an appeal to the British people to prevent their repre- 
sentatives from reducing the German people to slavery. 

On the night of May 13th a great crowd of Germans, 
led "by men carrying red flags, congregated in front of the 
Reichstag building in Berlin and marched to the Hotel 
Adlon, where the American officers were quartered. There 
they denounced the peace treaty and called to those inside 
the building to ' ' throw the Americans out. ' ' The Ameri- 
can officers in the hotel were ordered to report to the 
senior officer present and on the arrival of German troops 
the crowd was dispersed. 

President Wilson was the chief object of scorn to the 
German mobs that were meeting nightly in Berlin. There 
was a rumor that a secret call to arms had been sent out 
by the government and that a fight would be made to the 
last against the allied armies in the event they tried to 
move farther into Germany. 

The peace conference remained unmoved by the 



WOODROW WILSON 

events in Germany. Every eye was turned to the G 
man emissaries in Paris, and between tunes the oonfer 
ence considered problems aside from those in which 
central empires were involved. 

President "Wilson remained steadfast in his Btand on 
Fiume and declared he had not been convinced of the jus 
tice of the Italian demands. The Italian delegation did 
not press the question, but announced that Italian tro 
had been sent to occupy Dalmatia. 

Relations among the four big powers were n 
dial at this time. Several weeks prior the United St 
and Great Britain had entered into an agreement with 
France to come to her assistance in case of another in 
vasion by the Germans. Italy now signified an inclina 
tion to become a partner in the transaction, and the 
quest was taken under advisement. 

On May 15th Brockdorff-Rantzau, the head of the 
German commission, intimated that Germany would re 
fuse to sign the treaty. The French met the annoui 
ment by at once sending Marshal Foch to the occupied 
regions with instructions to prepare at once for an ad- 
vance into Germany in the event the refusal became a fact. 
At the same time the economic committee of the peace 
conference began considering the economic measure 
be taken against Germany and announced that the 
blockade would be imposed to a greater extent than « lin- 
ing the war, as Germany was without ships or Bailors and 
for that reason could get no supplies from the Scandi- 
navian countries. 

A semi-official announcement in Berlin confirmed the 
rumor that the Germans would reject the peace treaty, 
but President Wilson remained unmoved by the report 

On May 17th, Count Brockdorff-Rantzan left P 
for Berlin to hold a conference with the cabinet H< 
returned on May 18th and it was then announced by ■ 
member of the German delegation that the treaty would 
be signed. 



CHAPTER XLV 
THE PRESIDENT CALLS CONGRESS. 

Congress met in special session on May 20, 1919, pur- 
suant to the President 's special request from Paris. The 
first question taken up was the reading of the President's 
message, the first he had not delivered in person: It 
follows : 

' l Gentlemen of the Congress : I deeply regret my ina- 
bility to be present at the opening of the extraordinary 
session of Congress. It still seems to be my duty to take 
part in the counsels of the peace conference and contribute 
what I can to the solution of the innumerable questions to 
whose settlement it has had to address itself. For they 
are questions which affect the peace of the whole world, 
and from there, therefore, the United States cannot stand 
apart. 

"I deemed it my duty to call the Congress together 
at this time because it was not wise to postpone longer the 
provisions which must be made for the support of the 
government. Many of the appropriations which are abso- 
lutely necessary for the maintenance of the government 
and the fulfilment of its varied obligations for the fiscal 
year 1919-1920 have not yet been made; the end of the 
present fiscal year is at hand ; and action upon these ap- 
propriations can no longer be prudently delayed. 

' * The question which stands at the front of all others 
in every country amidst the present great awakening is 
the question of labor ; and perhaps I can speak of it with 
as great advantage while engrossed in the consideration 
of interests which affect all countries alike as I could at 
home and amidst the interests which naturally most affect 

756 



WOODROW WILSON 

my thought, because they are the interests of our own 
people. 

"By the question of labor 1 do doI mean the quest 
of efficient industrial production, the question of b 
labor is to be obtained and made effective in th< 
process of sustaining populations and winnii 
amidst commercial and industrial rivalries. 

"I mean that much greater and more vital question, 
How are the men and women who do the daily labor of tin- 
world to obtain progressive improvement in the condi- 
tions of their labor, to be made happier, and to be Berved 
better by the communities and the industries which their 
labor sustains and advances! How are they to be given 
their right advantage as citizens and human being 

"There is now in fact a real community of intei 
between capital and labor, but it lias oever been made 
evident in action. It can be made operative and manii 
only in a new organization of industry. The genius of our 
business men and the sound practical sense of our work- 
ers can certainly work out such a partnership when oi 
they realize and sincerely adopt a common purpose with 
regard to it. 

"Those who really desire a new relationship betv 
capital and labor can readily find a way to bring it al 
and perhaps federal legislation can help more than - 
legislation could. 

"The object of all reform in this essential mal 
must be the genuine democratization of industry, I 
upon a full recognition of the right of those who work, m 
whatever rank, to participate in Borne organic way m 
every decision which directly affects their welfare 01 
part they are to play in industry. Some positiv< 
lation is practicable. The Congress has already shown 
the way to one reform which should be world wide, by 
establishing the eight-hour day as the standard day in 
every field of labor over which it can exercise control. 
"It has sought to find the way to pro i at child la 



758 WOODROW WILSON 

and will, I hope and believe, presently find it. It has 
served the whole country by leading the way in develop- 
ing the means of preserving and safeguarding life and 
health in dangerous industries. 

"It can now help in the difficult task of giving a new 
form and spirit to industrial organization by coordinating 
the several agencies of conciliation and adjustment which 
have been brought into existence by the difficulties and 
mistaken policies of the present management of industry 
and by setting up and developing new federal agencies of 
advice and information which may serve as a clearing 
house for the best experiments and the best thought on 
this great matter, upon which every thinking man must 
be aware that the future development of society directly 
depends. 

" Agencies of international counsel and suggestion 
are presently to be created in connection with the League 
of Nations in this very field ; but it is national action and 
the enlightened policy of individuals, corporations and 
societies within each nation that must bring about the 
actual reforms. 

"I am sure that it is not necessary for me to remind 
you that there is one immediate and very practical ques- 
tion of labor that we should meet in the most liberal spirit. 
We must see to it that our returning soldiers are assisted 
in every practicable way to find the places for which they 
are fitted in the daily work of the country. 

"This can be done by developing and maintaining 
upon an adequate scale the admirable organization created 
by the Department of Labor for placing men seeking 
work ; and it can also be done, in at least one very great 
field, by creating new opportunities for individual enter- 
prise. 

"The secretary of the interior has pointed out the 
way by which returning soldiers may be helped to find and 
take up land in the hitherto undeveloped regions of the 
country which the federal government has prepared or 



WOODROW WILSON 

can readily prepare for cultivation, and for many of the 

cut-over or neglected areas which lie within the limit 
the older States; and I once more take the Lil 
recommending very urgently that bis plana Bhall 
the immediate and substantial supporl of the con| > 

"Peculiar and very stimulating conditions awail 
commerce and industrial enterprise in the immed 
future. Unusual opportunities will presently | 
themselves to our merchants and produc< ra in for< 
markets, and large fields for pro lit a M.- investmenl will be 
opened to our free capital. But it is nol only «.t' that that 
I am thinking; it is not chiefly of that that I am thinking. 
Many great industries prostrated by the war wait to be 
rehabilitated, in many parts of the world where what will 
be lacking is not brains, or willing hands, or organizing 
capacity, or experienced skill, but machinery, and raw- 
materials, and capital. 

"I believe that our business men, our merchants, our 
manufacturers, and our capitalists will have the vision to 
see that prosperity in one part of the world ministei 
prosperity everywhere ; that there is in a very true sen 
solidarity of interest throughout the world of enterpi 
and that our dealings with the count lies that have need <>t* 
our products and our money will teach them t<» deem ua 
more than ever friends whose necessities we Beek in in 
the right way to serve. 

' * Our new merchant ships, which have in Bome (guar 
ters been feared as destructive rivals, may prove helpful 
rivals, rather, and common servants, very much needed 
and very welcome. Our great shipyards, new and old, will 
be so opened to the use of the world thai they will j.i 
immensely serviceable to every maritime people in restor 
ing, much more rapidly than would otherwise have been 
possible, the tonnage wantonly destroyed in the war. 

"I have only to suggest thai there are manj 
at which we can facilitate Amercan enterprise in for< 
trade by opportune legislation and make it easy for 



760 WOODROW WILSON 

American merchants to go where they will be welcomed 
as friends rather than as dreaded antagonists. 

"America has a great and honorable service to per- 
form in bringing the commercial and industrial undertak- 
ings of the world back to their old scope and swing again 
and putting a solid structure of credit under them. All 
our legislation should be friendly to such plans and pur- 
poses. 

"And credit and enterprise alike will be quickened 
by timely and helpful legislation with regard to taxation. 
I hope that the congress will find it possible to undertake 
an early reconsideration of federal taxes in order to make 
our system of taxation more simple and easy of adminis- 
tration and the taxes themselves as little burdensome as 
they can be made and yet suffice to support the govern- 
ment and meet all its obligations. 

"The figures to which those obligations have risen 
are very great indeed, but they are not so great as to make 
it difficult for the nation to meet them, and meet them, 
perhaps, in a single generation, by taxes which will 
neither crush nor discourage. 

"These are not so great as they seem, not so great 
as the immense sums we have had to borrow, added to the 
immense sums we have had to raise by taxation would 
seem to indicate; for a very large proportion of those 
sums were raised in order that they might be loaned to the 
governments with which we were associated in the war, 
and those loans will, of course, constitute assets not lia- 
bilities, and will not have to be taken care of by our 
taxpayers. 

' ' The main thing we shall have to care for is that our 
taxation shall rest as lightly as possible on the produc- 
tive resources of the country, that its rates shall be stable, 
and that it shall be constant in its revenue yielding power. 
We have found the main sources from which it must be 
drawn. 



WOODROW WILSON 

"I take it for granted that its mainstays will h< • 
forth be the income tax, the excess profits" tax, and 
estate tax. All these can be adjusted to yield constant 
and adequate returns and yel not constitute a too griei 
burden on the taxpayer. A revision of the income 
has already been provided for by the act of L918, but I 
think you will find that further changes can be mad< 
advantage both in the rates of tax and the method of 
collection. 

"The excess profits tax need not long be maintained 
or the rates which were necessary while the enormous 
penses of the war had to be borne; but it should be made 
the basis of a permanent system which will reach undue 
profits without discouraging the enterprise and activity 
of our business men. The tax on inheritances ought, no 
doubt, to be reconsidered in its relation to the fiscal 
terns of the several states, but it certainly ought to remain 
a permanent part of the fiscal system of the federal g 
eminent also. 

"Many of the minor taxes provided for in the 
enue legislation of 1917 and 1918, though no doubt made 
necessaiy by the pressing necessities of wartime, could 
hardly find sufficient justfication under the easier cir 
cumstances of peace, and can now happily be got rid of. 

"Among these, I hope you will agree, are th< 
upon various manufacturers and the taxes opon retail 
sales. They are unequal in the incidence on different in 
dustries and on different individuals. Their collect 
is difficult and expensive. Those which are levied U] 
articles sold at retail are largely evaded by the readjust 
ment of retail prices. 

"On the other hand, I should assume that it U • 
ent to maintain a considerable range of indii 
and the fact that alcoholic liquors will presently n 
afford a source of revenue by taxation makes it the m< 
necessary that the field should be carefully restudied in 
order that equivalent sources of revenue may be round 



762 WOODROW WILSON 

which it will be legitimate and not burdensome to draw 
upon. 

' 'There is, fortunately, no occasion for undertaking 
in the immediate future any general revision of our sys- 
tem of import duties. No serious danger of foreign com- 
petition now threatens American industries. Our coun- 
try has emerged from the war less disturbed and less 
weakened than any of the European countries which are 
our competitors in manufacture. Their industrial estab- 
lishments have been subjected to greater strain than ours, 
their labor force to a more serious disorganization, and 
this is clearly not the time to seek an organized advantage. 

' * The work of mere reconstruction will, I am afraid, 
tax the capacity and the resources of their people for 
years to come. 

"So far from there being any danger or need of 
accentuated foreign competition, it is likely that the con- 
ditions of the next few years will greatly facilitate the 
marketing of American manufactures abroad. 

"Least of all should we depart from the policy 
adopted in the tariff act of 1913 of permitting the free 
entry into the United States of the raw materials needed 
to supplement and enrich our own abundant supplies. 

"Nevertheless, there are parts of our tariff system 
which need prompt attention. The experiences of the war 
have made it plain that in some cases too great reliance 
on foreign supply is dangerous and that in determining 
certain parts of our tariff policy domestic considerations 
must be borne in mind which are political as well as 
economic. 

"Among the industries to which special considera- 
tion should be given is that of the manufacture of dye- 
stuffs and related chemicals. Our complete dependence 
upon German supplies before the war made the interrup- 
tion of trade a cause of exceptional economic disturbance. 

"The close relation between the manufacturer of 
dyestuffs, on the one hand, and of explosives and poison- 



WOODROW WILSON 

ous gases, on the other, moreover, hae given the industry 
an exceptional significance and value Although the 
United States will gladly and unhesitatingly join in the 
program of international disarmament, it will, neverthe- 
less, be a policy of obvious prudence to make certain of 
the successful maintenance of many strong and well 
equipped chemical plants. The German chemical indus- 
try, with which we will be brought into competition! 
and may well be again, a thoroughly knit monopoly <■ 
ble of exercising a competition of a peculiarly insid 
and dangerous kind. 

"The United States should, moreover, have the 
means of properly protecting itself whenever our trade 
is discriminated against by foreign nations in order that 
we may be assured of that equality of treatment which 
we hope to accord and to promote the world over. I 
tariff laws as they now stand provide no weapon of retali- 
ation in case other governments should enact legislat 
unequal in its bearing on our products as compared with 
the products of other countries. 

"Though we are as far as possible from desirin 
enter upon any course of retaliation, we must frankly 
face the fact that hostile legislation by other nation 
not beyond the range of possibility ami that it may have 
to be met by counter legislation. 

"This subject has, fortunately been exhaustively in 
vestigated by the United States tariff commission. A 
recent report of that commission has shown very clearly 
that we lack and that we ought to have the instnron 
necessary for the assurance of equal ami equitable 
ment. 

"The attention of the congress has been called to this 
matter on past occasions and the measures which are now 
recommended by the tariff commission are substantially 
the same that have been suggested by previous adminia 
trations. I recommend that this phase of the tarifl qn 
tion receive the early attention of the CO] .. 



764 WOODROW WILSON 

"Will you not permit me, turning from these matters, 
to speak once more and very earnestly of the proposed 
amendment to the constitution which would extend the 
suffrage to women and which passed the house of repre- 
sentatives at the last session of the congress? It seems 
to me that every consideration of justice and of public 
advantage calls for the intimate adoption of that amend- 
ment and its submission forthwith to the legislatures of 
the several states. 

"Throughout all the world this long delayed exten- 
sion of the suffrage is looked for; in the United States, 
longer, I believe, than anywhere else, the necessity for it, 
and the immense advantage of it to the national life, has 
been urged and debated, by women and men who saw the 
need for it and urged the policy of it when it required 
steadfast courage to be so much beforehand with the com- 
mon conviction ; and I, for one, covet for our country the 
distinction of being among the first to act in a great 
reform. 

"The telegraph and telephone lines will, of course, 
be returned to their owners so soon as the retransfer can 
be effected without administrative confusion, so soon, 
that is, as the change can be made with least possible in- 
convenience to the public and to the owners themselves. 

"The railroads will be handed over to their owners 
at the end of the calendar year; if I were in immediate 
contact with the administrative questions which must gov- 
ern the retransfer of the telegraph and telephone lines I 
could name the exact date for their return also. 

"The demobilization of the military forces of the 
country has progressed to such a point that it seems to me 
entirely safe now to remove the ban upon the manufacture 
and sale of wines and beers, but I am advised that with- 
out further legislation I have not the legal authority to 
remove the present restrictions. 

"I therefore recommend that the act approved Nov. 
21, 1918, entitled 'An act to enable the secretary of agri- 



WOODROW WILSON 

culture to carry out, during the fiscal year ending June 
30, 1919, the purposes of the act entitled "An ad to pro 
vide further for the national security and defense by 
stimulating agriculture and facilitating the distribution 
of agricultural products" and for other purpo 
amended or repealed in so far as it applies to wines and 
beers. 

The request of the President for repeal of the pro 
hibition law created a storm of protest and he was 
verely criticized by reformers throughout the count ry. Be 
refused to make any comment en tin- verbal attacks of his 
enemies and continued his work with the peace conference 

One of his main problems was the effort of the I 
man delegation to dodge the clause in tin- treaty laying 
the responsibility for the war at Germany's door. 
correspondence follows : 

"At Versailles, May 13.— To His Ecellency, M. 
Clemenceau, president of the peace conference. — Sir: 
the draft of the peace treaty submitted to the German 
delegates, part VIII., concerning reparation, begins with 
article 231, which reads as follows : 

" 'The allied and associated governments affirm and 
Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her 
allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the 
allied and associated governments and their nationals 
have been subjected as consequence of the war imp 
upon them by the aggression of Germany and her all 

"Now the obligation to make reparation has 1 n ac- 
cepted by Germany by virtue of the note from Secretary 
of State Lansing of November 5, 1918; independent^ 
the question of responsibility for the war. The German 
delegation cannot admit that there could arise out of a 
responsibility incurred by the former German 
ment in regard to the origin of the world war any ri 
for the allied and associated powers t«» 1- indemnified by 
Germany for losses suffered during the war. 



766 WOODROW WILSON 

"The representatives of the allied and associated 
states have, moreover, declared several times that the 
German people should not be held responsible for the 
faults committed by their governments. The German 
people did not will the war and would not have under- 
taken a war of aggression. They have always remained 
convinced that this war was for them a defensive war. 

"The German delegates also do not share the view 
of the allied and associated governments in regard to the 
origin of the war. They cannot consider the former Ger- 
man government as the party which was solely or chiefly 
to blame for the war. The draft of the treaty of peace 
transmitted by you contains no facts in support of this 
view; no proof on the subject is furnished therein. 

"The German delegates therefore beg you to be so 
good as to communicate to them the report of the com- 
mission set up by the allied and associated governments 
for the purpose of establishing the responsibility of the 
authors of the war. 

"Pray accept, Mr. President, the assurances of my 
high consideration. Brockdorff-Rantzau. ' ' 

The text of the reply of Premier Clemenceau was 
dated May 20, 1919, and read as follows : 

' ' Mr. Chairman : In your note of May 13 you state 
that Germany, while ' accepting' in November, 1918, 'the 
obligation to make reparation,' did not understand such 
an acceptance to mean that her responsibility was in- 
volved either for the war or for the acts of the former 
German government and that it is only possible to con- 
ceive of such an obligation if its origin and cause is the 
responsibility of the authors of the damage. You add 
that the German people would never have undertaken a 
war of aggression. 

"Yet, in the note from Secretary of State Lansing 
of Nov. 5, 1918, which you approve of and advise in favor 
of your contention, it is stated that the obligation to make 



WOODROW WILSON 

reparation arises out of 'Germany's aggression by land, 

sea, and air.' 

"As the German government did not at the time 
make any protest against this allegation, it thereby i 
ognized it as well founded. Therefore Germany 
nized in 1918, implicitly but clearly, both the 
and her responsibility. 

"It is too late to seek to deny them today. 

"It would be impossible, you state further, thai 
German people should be regarded as the accomp] 
of the faults committed by the 'former German govern 
ment.' However, Germany has never claimed, and Buch 
a declaration would have been contrary to all principles 
of international law that a modification of its political 
regime or a change in the governing personalities would 
be sufficient to extinguish an obligation already under- 
taken by any nation. She did not act upon the principle 
she now contends for either in 1871 as regards Frs 
after the proclamation of the republic nor in 1917 in 
regard to Russia after the revolution which abolished the 
czarist regime. 

"Finally you ask that the report of the commission 
on responsibility be communicated to you. In replj 
beg to say that the allied and associated powers ooi rider 
the reports of the commissions set up by the peace con- 
ference as documents of an internal character which can 
not be transmitted to you. G. Clemeneeau." 

On the same day this reply was sent to the German 
delegation. Brockdorff-Rantzau asked for more time to 
consider certain questions in connection with the treaty. 
His note follows : 

"The German peace delegation intends during tin- 
next days to submit communications to the allied and 
associated governments on the following points, which, 
in the eyes of the delegation, fall under the definition of 
suggestions of a practical nature: 



768 WOODROW WILSON 

"First, a note concerning territorial questions in the 
east. 

1 i Second, a note concerning Alsace-Lorraine. 

"Third, a note concerning the occupied territories. 

1 ' Fourth, a note concerning the extent and discharge 
of the obligation undertaken by Germany in view of sepa- 
ration. 

"Fifth, a note concerning the further practical treat- 
ment of the question of labor laws. 

* ' Sixth, a note concerning the treatment of German 
private property in enemy countries. 

"Besides this a syllabus is being prepared of the ob- 
servations which are called for from the German govern- 
ment by the draft of the treaty of peace in its detailed 
provisions. The problem hereby involved being, in part, 
of a very complicated nature and it having been necessary 
to discuss them extensively with the experts in Versailles, 
as well as with those in Berlin, it will not be possible to 
dispose of them within the time limit of fifteen days noti- 
fied by your excellency on the 7th inst., although the dele- 
gation will take pains to transmit as many notes as 
possible within the limit. 

"Having regard to this, I beg, in the name of the 
German peace delegation, to move that the contents of the 
intended notes be regarded as having already been made 
the subject of discussion in writing and that the requisite 
time be granted to us for a more detailed exposition. 

1 1 Brockdorff-Rantzau. ' ' 

The German request was taken as an indication that 
Germany meant to sign the treaty and Clemenceau wasted 
no time in granting the request. His reply follows : 

"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
May 20 stating that the subjects of which the German 
delegation wishes to offer suggestions are so complicated 
that the memoranda of the German delegation cannot be 
completed within the fifteen days granted on the 7th inst. 



WOODROW WILSON 

and asking, in consequence, for an extension of the time 
limit. 

"In reply, I beg to inform your excellency thai the 
allied and associated governments are willing to grant aD 
extension until Thursday, May 29. 

"Clemenoean." 



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